As with previous iterations, the reading room upends traditional forms of display in both content and form. Books meander through angular shelves next to, above, and across from each other in challenging, experimental, unconventional ways to mirror the tension and discomfort historically embedded in discussions on colonization.
Conceived by C& Co-founders and Artistic Directors Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, the project offers a selection of key, and, at times, unexpected texts that spark discourse on the enduring structures that continuously undergird colonial legacies in modern society. “Unfinished,” here, subtly echoes the “post” in postcolonial—hinting at an incomplete reckoning with colonialism and its evident and insidious aftermaths.
Launched in 2017, the reading room has traveled to art spaces and museums around the world, connecting in various ways with institutions such as ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Transmediale in Berlin, school in Vienna, Musée Les Abattoir in Toulouse, Para Site in Hong Kong, or for its first US iteration the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
Read more about the installation here.
Competition entry renderings, considering both OSB & Birch plywood. With a limited budget, we proposed starting from a standard 4'x8' board so that it could be CNC cut to minimize labor cost & ensure precision for interlocking pieces. Each vertical or horizontal board would fall within 1'x8' to minimize waste.
The installation would extend from the geometry of the unused space under the existing stair, and the interlocking wood panels would be self-supporting, assembled without glue or mechanical fasteners, and easily disassemble.
