How can a crack in one’s own biography be changed from a limbo like state into a cozy, fluffy, gooey, and weird, squishy place full of ideas? To what extent is a pleasurable re-appropriation of a place in which one grew up and has since distanced oneself from even possible? These and more other questions accompanied the stay of Zurich based curator and cultural mediator Marcel Hörler. Inspired by the auto-fictional essay «Returning To Reims» by author and philosopher Didier Eribon and, in particular, his way of shaping personal experiences into a critique of the social world and its forms of oppression, he entered the library with a vague plan but driven by curiosity of using it as an environment to read, collect and arrange ideas, that allows to work without the restrictions of a timetable but instead with the intention of outlining an introduction to an undertaking that will outlast his stay.
Tasks like combining terms and comparing images allowed Marcel to look for similarities, differences as well as possibilities of artistic creation and find more
perspectives for looking at such things like a collar as a piece of jewelry to decorate and a device to dominate a body; a traditional costume as means of identification to signify an affiliation to a group of like-minded people and to differentiate from the majority group in a society; furnishings as status symbols
and objects for reproduction, health, illness, physical-/sexual behavior, hygiene, etc. The list could go on and talks in the hallway would most likely make it even longer.
During four weeks various books passed his hands, not only the ones from Bibliothek Andreas Züst, but also Alpenhof and the Cantonal Library. Some books are on the bookshelves waiting to be explored, while others are nontangible, separated, by a protective shield from us, always ready to show, to point out, portend and foretell us. Often, he had to rely on the people on the site: creative directors, researchers, film lovers, hosts, cooks, enthusiasts, mushroom pickers, writers and waiters, – all companions – for a limited amount of time. Therefore, acts of asking with the urge to go on and a hope to dive in were essential in his process of making such in-(visible) places into his playgrounds.
November 2023
Text+Fotos: Marcel Hörler