[{"id":5267,"title":"A Society that Breathes Once a Year","dimensions":"14.6 x 22.5 cm, 85 p, language: English, publisher. Book Works, ISBN: 978 1 906012 32 8","date_begin":"2012-01-01","material":"ink, paper","short_description":"","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":26,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":1,"stream_count":0,"collection":"Collection M HKA, Antwerp","cached_tag_list":"artist novel","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"B 2024/688","stream_count_app":27,"permalink":"a-society-that-breathes-once-a-year","description_ru":null,"description_de":null,"description_es":null,"description_el":null,"short_description_du":null,"short_description_fr":null,"short_description_ru":null,"short_description_de":null,"short_description_es":null,"short_description_el":null,"description_ca":null,"short_description_ca":null,"description_it":null,"short_description_it":null,"cached_primary_asset_url":null,"cached_actor_names":null,"hide_from_json":false,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":true,"poster_image":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/010/698/large/Artistnovel_002.jpg?1342085690","poster_credits":"(c)M HKA","translations":[{"locale":"en","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiterary synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA man and a woman begin the project of building an isolated, self-sustainable farm, cut off from civilisation. Against all expectations the first thing they have to confront is the construction of a road, and the constant reminder of the present left behind. Through a non-linear narrative, the two protagonists drive through the tawdry present, only to realise a future set deeply in the past. Their meagre provisions and inexperience places them at odds with survival, but at one with a mesmerising fiction. Haunted by the spectres of dead rabbits and a prophetic bear the couples utopian dream is delivered in a rapid, dense stream of language as if the text itself wants to return to the pace of present.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://bookworks.org.uk/node/1702\"\u003eNovel\u0026#39;s website\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"},{"locale":"nl","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiteraire synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEen man en een vrouw beginnen met de bouw van een ge\u0026iuml;soleerde, zelfvoorzienende boerderij, afgesloten van de beschaving. Tegen alle verwachtigen in is hun eerste uitdaging het aanleggen van een weg, en de voortdurende herinnering aan het heden dat ze achterlaten. Doorheen een non-lineair verhaal rijden de twee hoofdpersonages door het smakeloze heden, louter om een toekomst te realiseren die stevig is geworteld in het verleden. Hun bescheiden voorzieningen en gebrek aan ervaring staat haaks op survival, maar komt perfect overeen met fascinerende fictie. Achtervolgd door de schimmen van dode konijnen en een profetische beer wordt de utopische droom van het koppel gebracht in een snelle, dichte stroom van taal, alsof de tekst zelf wilt terugkeren naar het tempo van het heden.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://bookworks.org.uk/node/1702\"\u003eNovel\u0026#39;s website\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"},{"locale":"fr","description":""}]},{"id":18521,"title":"Tamam Shud","dimensions":"18.7 x 11.7 cm, 268 p, language: English, publisher: Berlin: Sternberg Press, ISBN: 9783956793981","date_begin":"2018-01-01","material":"ink, paper","short_description":"","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":141,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":12,"stream_count":0,"collection":"Collection M HKA, Antwerp ","cached_tag_list":"artist novel book","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"B 2029/520","stream_count_app":36,"permalink":"tamam-shud","description_ru":"","description_de":"","description_es":"","description_el":"","short_description_du":"","short_description_fr":"","short_description_ru":"","short_description_de":"","short_description_es":"","short_description_el":"","description_ca":"","short_description_ca":"","description_it":"","short_description_it":"","cached_primary_asset_url":"http://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/040/261/medium_500/TShud-cover.jpg?1527800809","cached_actor_names":"Alex Cecchetti","hide_from_json":false,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":true,"poster_image":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/040/261/large/TShud-cover.jpg?1527800809","poster_credits":"Jakub de Barbaro, Alex Cecchetti","translations":[{"locale":"en","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiterary synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTamam Shud\u003c/i\u003e is the post-mortem investigation of the victim into his own assassination. The only clue\u0026mdash;found in a secret pocket sewn inside his trousers\u0026mdash;that detectives have recovered is a fragile piece of paper torn from the pages of a book with the words \u003ci\u003eTamam Shud\u003c/i\u003e, \u0026#39;this is the end,\u0026#39; written on it. Experts, antiquarians, and opium smokers have been consulted. These are the last two words in the Rubaiyat, an ancient collection of esoteric poems written by a Persian poet named Omar Khayyam.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelation of the novel to the artist\u0026rsquo;s practice\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout an art project that spanned over two years, during which the writing process and the artistic process intertwined, feeding each other as they evolved, a narrative was created that altered the meaning of the artworks while at the same time dictating the contents of the artist\u0026rsquo;s novel. \u003ci\u003eTamam Shud\u003c/i\u003e has emerged through a series of episodic performances and an exhibition featuring guided tours, seminars on poetry, synesthesia piano concerts, tarot readings, and dances on river stones. All of it sprinkled with mystery, humour, literary references, and biographical tidbits. As if the only way to understand death was through an inquiry into life, what arises when reading \u003ci\u003eTamam Shud\u003c/i\u003e is not the account of an individual life, but rather a reflection on the phenomenon of existence. The publication of Tamam Shud is occasioned by the project The Novel As Fantasy at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2016\u0026ndash;17), curated by \u003ca href=\"http://www.thebooklovers.info\"\u003eThe Book Lovers\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.thebooklovers.info/Tamam-Shud-the-Artist-s-Novel-Sternberg-Press-and-Ujazdowski-Castle\"\u003eNovel\u0026#39;s website\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"nl","description":""},{"locale":"fr","description":""}]}]