Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Kiosk: ‘Modes of Multiplication’ Liam Gillick: ‘Edgar Schmitz’

KIOSK XII
Witte de With, Rotterdam (2004)

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (Lower Gallery and Concourse)
Saturday 17 December 2005 - Sunday 15 January 2006 
12.00 – 7.30 pm daily

Kiosk: ‘Modes of Multiplication’

Kiosk is a travelling archive of independent publishing projects within the field of contemporary art. With contributions from more than 250 alternative and self-organised publishing houses, Kiosk comprises a diverse and illuminating range of artists’ books, periodicals, alternative magazines and audio and video projects. First presented in 2001 at Galerie Karin Guenther, Hamburg, Kiosk has since travelled to various public institutions, galleries and artist-run spaces across Europe. These include Manifesta 4, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Kunst-Werke, Berlin and the 9th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul.

Typically taking the form of a reading room or library and reconfigured by a different artist or designer at each new location, Kiosk has continually expanded and metamorphosed with each new venue that it has travelled to thus reflecting current trends and thinking. 
 
Kiosk has been organised and compiled by Christoph Keller, founder and former director of Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, a Frankfurt-based publishing house, which has concentrated on producing artists’ books since 1999.

Liam Gillick: ‘Edgar Schmitz’
With special guest appearance by Josh Smith and Christopher Wool

Edgar Schmitz is an exhibition conceived by British artist and Turner Prize nominee Liam Gillick in response to an invitation from the ICA to create the display for the exhibition Kiosk. Gillick extended this invitation in turn by asking the London-based German artist and writer Edgar Schmitz to collaborate with him on the creation of the project. 

Gillick has made Edgar Schmitz the source of his project at the ICA, referring to him as both the title and the content of the exhibition. By doing this, Gillick echoes the central theme of Kiosk, which is focused on the idea that publications are used by their readers as a source of information they can further apply in different contexts. 

Physically connecting his project with Kiosk, Gillick has developed a complex of bright, red wooden structures, which divide the space of the gallery. Each element incorporates an open vertical framework with a bench/shelf system that can be used both as a place to display the archive and as a place to sit and read. Schmitz’ projected loop derived from Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film Third Generation is continually shown in the main gallery space and a mutated soundtrack taken from the film plays on specially designed speakers in the Concourse. To extend this arrangement further, a new work by Christopher Wool, made in collaboration with Josh Smith, acts as a mute sign and announcement of this meeting of strategies.

Gallery Talks

A number of Gallery Talks have been organised featuring a wide range of practitioners in the field of art, exhibition-making and publishing to give further insight into the exhibition: 

•	Tuesday 20 December 1 pm Bettina Brunner, ICA Exhibitions Assistant 
•	Wednesday 21 December 7 pm Jens Hoffmann, ICA Director of Exhibitions 
•	Tuesday 3 January 6.30 pm Stephen Bury, Head of European & American Collections (and Maps, Music, Philatelic) at the British Library 
•	Wednesday 4 January 1 pm Russell Herron, ICA Bookshop Manager
•	Thursday 5 January 6.30 pm Sarah Jacobs, artist, running the independent press Colebrooke Publications
•	Tuesday 10 January 6.30 pm Edgar Schmitz, artist of the exhibition and writer
•	Wednesday 11 January 1 pm Maria Fusco, writer and Senior Lecturer in BA Book Arts and Illustration at the University of East London

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