“living library of becomings” is an ongoing research and performative library project dedicated to multiple narrations of intersectional, decolonial, queer feminist spirits, with an attempt to create a platform in which such voices and texts are shared in tactile and performative ways. It gathers and shares textual materials, ranging from must-read literature, and scholarly papers, to artistic contributions – zines, speculative fiction, and audio pieces – in various forms and languages.
The project asks: How can intersectional feminist spirits be shared as a living library while embracing the physical bodily experiences with textual materials? How can the method of library-making as an archival practice be performative to challenge the canonical systematisation, categorisation and languages?
It seeks alternative modes of knowing as a communal and collective practice that resists the ongoing colonial system of knowledge production to explore a platform as a decentralised platform as well as a portal space, connecting the past to the present to the future of and trans-geopolitical endeavours.
This platform tests out a collaborative mode and invites everyone to submit or suggest a text or any other material that is meaningful in this context. We will happily add and make it accessible on the desktop. Feel free to write to us the specific content by ︎ email.
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Project conceived by Miwa Negoro
It takes part in and is supported by the School of Commons (SoC), a community-based initiative dedicated to studying and developing decentered knowledge, located at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2023-2024.
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“living library of becomings” is an expanded project of “inter:archive” developed by curators Giovanna Bragaglia, Miwa Negoro and Camille Regli, as part of zurich moves! in 2020 with support from Fluxum Foundation. “inter:archive” collaborates with the VOLUMES archive, a non-profit organisation in Zurich that supports the local and international DIY-facet of art publishing.