Opening Soon / Opening Now: Public Library Laurence Aëgerter creates public Library in A’dams red light district
During one weekend the former brothel at the Korsjespoorsteeg will be transformed into "Public Library", an installation by visual artist Laurence Aëgerter. On the ground floor, 40 meters of classified books are on display on shelves.
During opening hours a librarian will guide the visitors, while she carries out a research, classifying both known and new methods of book classification. Several methods will be tested at the temporary library: famous systems of classification, such as Harvard’s, as well as alternative systems using principles from mathematics or game theory.
Saturday the 16th, a 12 hour private reading performance will take place on the second floor: The Reading Room. Laurence Aëgerter has invited 24 men and 24 women who haven’t met before. Each man is requested to bring a book and to read from it to the woman for fifteen minutes. The extracts that will have been read aloud will be collected in an artist book.
Location:
Korsjespoortsteeg 23
(A side street off Herengracht and Singel, two bridges from Amsterdam Central Station)
Opening hours:
Friday: 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday: 11 am – 11 pm: The Reading Room
Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm
Opening Soon / Opening Now
"Opening Soon / Opening Now" is the title of a project Laurence Aëgerter is developing for Red A.i.R. . Korsjespoortsteeg 23 was originally assigned to Aëgerter as a studio. She chose not to use the space as a studio however, but as a place to question her role as an artist within the gentrification plans of the city of Amsterdam. To investigate the transitional phase of the location, in between brothel and renovated home, she will apply there different public and semi-public functions. "Public Library" is the first of 8 potential public and semi-public functions she will try out in this space.
Laurence Aëgerter
Laurence Aëgerter (Marseille, 1972) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Fine Art department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam and Art History at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Her body of work is multidisciplinary, consisting of mainly photography, installations, performances and books, or a crossover of those media.
www.laurenceaegerter.com
Red A.i.R. (Artists-in-Residency van RedlightArt Amsterdam)
Red A.i.R. is organized by Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, the City of Amsterdam, housing corporation De Key/ Principaal and Kunstenaars & CO.
www.redlightartamsterdam.nl
"Public Library" is realised with the support of the Fonds BKVB.
