Events > Book Launch

25 - 27 Nov. 2011

European book launch for Commerce by Artists

Editor
Luis Jacob
In this Series

25 - 27 Nov. 2011
Miss Read Art Book Fair '11

27 Nov. 2011
Antonia Hirsch's The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange

In conjuntion with the Miss Read Art Book Fair in Berlin, Art Metropole is excited to present a project by Antonia Hirsch, The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange.

The Surplus Library‘s collection consists of books relevant to the topic of affect and economic exchange.

In redefining the concept of a physical library, The Surplus Library On Affect & Economic Exchange operates on the basic assumption that its specific collection of books already exists in the material world: in the homes and private collections of countless individuals. Some of the holdings of this vast and distributed library can become known and accessible through The Surplus Library Web site. The site develops as the library’s holdings and locations are registered by users.

The site provides “portraits” of the particular books in its collection, and the homepage displays the most recent user-created book selection to all visitors. The books’ content cannot be accessed online; instead, person-to-person borrowing and lending (owing and extending credit) in the physical world is facilitated by the site, thereby defying efficiency and convenience in its coupling of the material and the virtual. The project functions as a highly idiosyncratic register of literature on its specific topic, while concurrently embodying the subject of its holdings: quasi-economic, non-monetary exchanges trading on curiosity, desire, and trust — in other words, affect.

The association of the terms “affect” and “economy” is based on the assumption that personal relationships are produced by economic activity; for example, in the process of trade and the division of labour. Conversely, affect, and in particular desire, generates economic transactions: it is the needing and wanting that demands to be satisfied by goods or immaterial values such as care, attention, or love, all of which entail multifarious forms of exchange.

During the fair, a selection of the library’s holdings will be on view at Art Metropole’s booth, and on Sunday November 27 from 1 pm to 4 pm visitors are invited to bring their own books relating to the subject of affect and economic exchange and register a new branch of the library! Your books will be scanned and registered on site to contribute to The Surplus Library‘s holdings and immediately returned to you.

30 Nov. - 04 Dec. 2011
North American book launch for Commerce by Artists

Art Metropole is pleased to launch the new anthology at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair.

Commerce by Artists documents a fascinating and sweeping range of artists’ projects produced since the 1950s by Canadian and international artists who have sought to engage, rather than merely represent, the commercial world of which they are a part.

Encompassing canonical works such as Yves Klein’s Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility (1958), Seth Siegelaub’s Artist’s Contract (1971), and Lee Lozano’s Strike Piece (1969) — as well as innovative and rarely-documented works like Keith Obadike’s Blackness for Sale (2001), Kelly Mark’s In & Out (1997-ongoing until 2032), and Ben Kinmont’s Sometimes a Nicer Sculpture Is to Be Able to Provide a Living for Your Family (1998-ongoing) — Commerce by Artists is a comprehensive document of artworks that take the form of transactions and exchanges of value.

Edited by Luis Jacob

Artists include: Chris Burden, Maurizio Cattelan, Clegg & Guttmann, Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, Wim Delvoye, Maria Eichhorn, etoy.CORPORATION, Andrea Fraser, Rainer Ganahl, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Victor Grippo, Hans Haacke, Jens Haaning, Tehching Hsieh, Pierre Huyghe & Philippe Parreno, Mary Kelly, Janice Kerbel, Edward Kienholz, Ben Kinmont, Yves Klein, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Michael Landy,
Life of a Craphead, Lee Lozano, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Richard Manning, Teresa Margolles, Kelly Mark, Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Morris, N.E. Thing Co. Ltd., Garry Neill Kennedy, Keith Obadike, Cornelia Parker, Edward Poitras, Martha Rosler, Allen Ruppersberg, Seth Siegelaub, Santiago Sierra, Simon Starling, Mladen Stilinović, Ron Terada, Toxic Titties, Goran Trbuljak, Theodore Wan, Lawrence Weiner, Rachel Whiteread, Martha Wilson, Paul Wong, Erwin Wurm, Lin Yilin, Carey Young.

Includes contributions by: agent.NASDAQ aka Reinhold Grether, Zeigam Azizov, Clegg & Guttmann, Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, Isabelle De Baets and Hendrik Tratsaert, Jorge di Paola, Hu Fang, Elizabeth Ferrell, Gerald Ferguson, Andrea Fraser, Coco Fusco, Hans Haacke, Jens Hoffmann, Luis Jacob, Mary Kelly, Yves Klein, Jeffrey Kastner, Sina Najafi, Jane Crawford, Frances Richard, Richard Manning, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Helen Molesworth, Keith Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Beatrix Ruf, Andrea Rosen, Martha Rosler, Reid Shier, Julian Stallabrass, Julia Steinmetz, Heather Cassils, Clover Leary, Neil Thomas, Calvin Tomkins, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Cédric Villate.

14 - 28 Feb. 2012
Commerce by Artists European Lecture Tour by Luis Jacob

23 Mar. 2012
Toronto book launch and public conversation for Commerce by Artists

Art Metropole is pleased to announce two events to mark the Toronto launch of our latest publication, Commerce by Artists, edited by Luis Jacob.

On March 23, 2012 Luis Jacob, artist/curator/writer, and editor of Commerce by Artists, will moderate a conversation with contributors to the anthology including: Carole Condé + Karl Beveridge, Jon McCurley from Life of a Craphead, and two past participants from Mammalian Diving Reflex’s Haircuts by Children project, plus artist/publisher Ben Kinmont from California.

Commerce by Artists documents a fascinating and sweeping range of artists’ projects produced since the 1950s by Canadian and international artists who have sought to engage, rather than merely represent, the commercial world of which they are a part, revealing various expanded ideas of transaction, value and exchange. Encompassing popular works such as Yves Klein’s Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility (1958), Seth Siegelaub’s Artist’s Contract (1971), and Lee Lozano’s Strike Piece (1969) – as well as innovative and rarely-documented works like Keith Obadike’s Blackness for Sale (2001), Kelly Mark’s In & Out (1997 – ongoing until 2032).

Special thanks to The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, the University of Toronto and the Masters of Visual Studies Graduate Program.



Art Metropole is pleased to introduce Luis Jacob’s most recent book at it’s booth, fresh off the press, Commerce by Artists, published by Art Metropole. The book launch will occur in Berlin at the 2011 Miss Read Art Book Fair in Berlin.

Commerce affects our lives in countless ways, connecting people and products in transactions spanning the globe. Commerce by Artists documents a fascinating and sweeping range of artists’ projects produced since the 1950s by Canadian and international artists who have sought to engage, rather than merely represent, the commercial world of which they are a part. Includes contributions by over 50 artists and writers: Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, Maria Eichhorn, Andrea Fraser, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mary Kelly, Ben Kinmont, Yves Klein, Life of a Craphead, Lin Yilin, Keith Obadike, Martha Rosler, Reid Shier, Ron Terada, Toxic Titties, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and many more.


Luis Jacob is a Peruvian-born Toronto-based artist and curator whose work destabilizes conventions of viewing and invites a collision of meanings. He studied semiotics and philosophy at the University of Toronto. Since his participation in documenta 12, Kassel, 2007, he has achieved an international reputation with exhibitions at venues such as: Museum der Moderne Salzburg, 2019; Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 2019; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2018; Museion Bolzano, 2017; La Biennale de Montréal, 2016; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York City, 2015; Taipei Biennial, 2012; Generali Foundation, Vienna, 2011; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, 2010; Kunstverein in Hamburg, 2008; and Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 2008.

  1. Commerce by Artists