Gema Intxausti. Her Majesty Sylvia M. Session sixteen, The Book To Come

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"Her Majesty Sylvia M." 24 x 32 cm, 2015, pencil on paper (Illustrations after book of drawings by Silvia Plath). Edition of 50 copies produced by Tabakalera for the exhibition "Arenzana, Imaz, Intxausti, Montón, Peral".

With this session, I propose a reading of Her Majesty Sylvia M., a book made using random phrases from wall panels at the National Gallery in London and illustrated with versions of drawings by Sylvia Plath. Our reference here will be “The White Room” from Marcel Broodthaers’ L’Angelus de Daumier.

The book title plays with the names Plath and Sylvia M., to whom the book is dedicated. As it is impossible to interact or communicate with M., the book emerged as a need to educate. It is a book as a statement, something officially said or written, an act where an opinion is expressed, a declaration, an official communiqué, an account of the facts, a state of accounts, an instruction, an allegation. An affirmation as a statement, a statement as a book.

The session will continue with a practical exercise where we will work with the text of the book to come up with another, different text. Anyone attending the session is asked to bring drawing materials, pencils, felt tips, rubbers, glue, images, scissors.

Gema Intxausti (Gernika-Lumo, 1966) is an artist. She studied Fine Arts at the Universidad del País Vasco, UPV-EHU, and Film and Video at the University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham. Recent exhibitions include Macabea, la rutina diaria de la oficina, Galería CarrerasMúgica, Bilbao; Tratado de paz, Museo San Telmo, Donostia-San Sebastián; Arenzana, Imaz, Intxausti, Peral, Montón, Tabakalera, Donostia-San Sebastián; Wilder is the new black, La Taller, Bilbao; Suturak, Museo San Telmo, Donostia-San Sebastián; …meanwhile … rapture…, Gabinete Abstracto, sala rekalde, Bilbao. Inxausti has directed the workshop “Taller de práctica artística desde la experiencia narrativa” at Universidad del País Vasco, UPV-EHU (2015) as well as sessions in workshops such as Fundido en negro”, Artium-Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2009) and Lupa e Imán, directed by Iñaki Imaz, Arteleku, Donostia-San Sebastián (2005).

The Book To Come is a project developed for Corpus network for the practice of performance. Corpus is made up of Bulegoa z/b (Bilbao),  Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution (Amsterdam), Playground (STUK Kunstencentrum & M-Museum, Lovaine) and Tate Modern (London): www.corpus-network.org.

Corpus is cofinanced by the European Union Creative Europe Programme.