What is it to read? is a text assembled from short fragments from the writings of Althusser, Bataille, Bourdieu, Heidegger, Lacan, Mauss, Pynchon and Thoreau in English, German and Greek variations commissioned for The documenta 14 Reader (2017). The fragments form a concrete poem which reflects on reading, being and the gift. The original and longer text was developed using a similar method for An Envoy Reader (LemonMelon, 2014).
The main book of documenta 14 takes the form of a reader, evoking the various meanings associated with the term. The documenta 14 Reader explores—in essay, allegory, poem, historical legal document, and hybrid literary other—the discursive and practical concerns of the project, such as debt and gift, the coloniality of power, economies of the exhibition, and languages (and other currencies) without remainder. A critical anthology that reflects on history in order to better envision the present and reconceptualize the future, the Reader features both newly commissioned and foundational texts as well as image portfolios that illustrate the expansive scope—at once temporal and geographic—of historical artists and actors included in the documenta 14 project.
With contributions by Tony Bennett, Ross Birrell, Maria Boletsi, Jacques Derrida, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, W. E. B. Du Bois, Silvia Federici, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Yannis Hamilakis, Candice Hopkins, Quinn Latimer, Isabell Lorey, Sylvère Lotringer, Antonio Negri, Pauline Oliveros, Hiva Panahi, Paul B. Preciado, Adam Szymczyk, and others
Edited by Quinn Latimer and Adam Szymczyk
Separate 'variations' of the text What is it to read? were prepared for the separate editions of The documents 14 Reader published in English, German, and Greek.
I conducted a reading of the text What is it to read? at the publication launch in Kunsthochschule Kassel, 8 June 2018.
The publication launch included short readings from the poems, essays, parables, and letters that fill the publications are given by contributors including Ross Birrell, Moyra Davey, Natasha Ginwala, Hiwa K, Isabell Lorey, and Katerina Tselou.
