2018-19
Tessa Zettel
Reading group & series of events/mini-library of 10 audio cassette tapes, various lengths / unfinished speculative encyclopaedia, miscellaneous materials
Regular reading group & solo exhibition, The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge: An Incomplete Inventory of Extinctions in the People’s Republic of China, Black Sesame Space, Institute for Provocation, Beijing, 2019 / & part of the 2nd Macao Biennale, Macao Museum of Art, 2021.
A residency project at the Institute for Provocation, Beijing, exploring extinctions in China across time, working towards an as-yet-unfinished encylopaedic artist publication with cassette tape comprising contributions from sound artists including Yan Jun, Ake and Jaakko Junnila, The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge: An Incomplete Inventory of Extinctions in the People’s Republic of China.
The project also included an exhibition and live art events incorporating elements of performance-lecture, reading group, field trip and meal, which made space for collective reflection on multispecies entanglements and finitude in the context of anthropogenic climate change.
One outcome was the Extinction Club Reading Group, a group of Beijing-based participants reading aloud and discussing texts related to extinction. Over 6 months the group produced a box-set library of 10 home-made cassette tapes, each focused on conversation around a particular book or essay, which now lives in the library of the Institute for Provocation, Beijing.
Read OuMoPo blog posts about Extinction Club Reading Group here