3rd Thessaloniki Biennale

18 Sep – 18 Dec 2011

Inventory

Inventory is a representation of a research journey in the form of an archive of publications and printed matter. Starting from a central position in Europe (Berlin), the trip develops toward Eastern and Middle Eastern regions through cities like Poznan, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia and Istanbul, ultimately reaching Thessaloniki.

In this journey we took under consideration the changes and movements currently taking place in Arabic countries and Greek regions, seeing their impact on cultural, economical, political and social structures as a possibility to question European cultural establishments and their 'patriarchal' archives. The project tried to dig deep into the recent past of these regions and into their heritage, in order to record an inventory of anomalies, heresies, anarchism and feminism. What have we seen?

The resulting Inventory, built with the contributions of a diverse range of people involved with all aspects of the publishing production cycle (artists, archivists, collectors, journalists, designers, editors, schools, underground publishers, anarchist book fairs, feminist associations, distributors and printers), both represents an act of exploration as well as a source of information for researchers.

Both a temporary archive and a bookshop, the comprehensive collection thus established is displayed at the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial as a freely accessible curated library, whose materials are also available for purchase. Inventory includes books, magazines, booklets, posters, pamphlets, newspapers, archival materials as well as video and audio documentation of our journey.

http://www.thessalonikibiennale.gr