From February 12 to March 6, 2022, Pure Fiction presented an exhibition and performance program at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne titled Shifting Theater: Sibyl’s Mouths. The starting point was a collective reading of Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel The Last Man, in which the narrator discovers a collection of scribbled oak leaves scattered in a cave outside Naples.

Contributions by Rosa Aiello, Gerry Bibby, Coleman Collins, Ayanna Dozier, Annie Ernaux, Amelia Groom, Michèle Graf & Selina Grüter, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Ellen Yeon Kim, Bitsy Knox, Dan Kwon, Erika Landström, Enad Marouf, Katrin Mayer, Aislinn McNamara, Kamila & Jasmina Metwaly, Luzie Meyer, Vera Palme, Theresa Patzschke, Georgia Sagri, Mahsa Saloor, Elif Saydam, Mark von Schlegell, Simon Speiser, Elaine Tam, C.S. Tolan, Mikhail Wassmer, Anna Zacharoff.

Contributions by Paul Chan, Keren Cytter, Nicolás Gaugnini, Irena Haiduk, Madeline Hollander, Sarah Kürten, Jordan Lord with Carissa Rodriguez, Luzie Meyer, John Miller, Rachel Rose, Karin Schneider, Cally Spooner, Studio for Propositional Cinema, Lawrence Weiner, Christopher Williams

A compendium of essays, scripts, poems, and proposals by various artists, in relation to a Spectator: was compiled by Studio for Propositional Cinema for their eponymous exhibition at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover. In the opening text, Studio for Propositional Cinema—an artist collective founded in Düsseldorf in 2013—sets the context for the book’s investigations into notions of the script, staging, and the conditions of the exhibition itself. Other contributions include Keren Cytter’s rules and declarations for engaging life; Irena Haiduk and John Miller’s ruminations on the nature of the image and of the cinematic, respectively; a series of missives to Kevin Spacey from Cally Spooner; and an “open letter” by Christopher Williams detailing the labor and material conditions that have furnished the walls on which his exhibitions have hung.

This book is part of an ensemble of structures related to the nature of presentation in the Kestner Gesellschaft exhibition. Visually connected in their ultra-gloss white surfaces, they are meant to be seen as intertwined sites for the display of objects, the reproduction of images, the staging of performances, and the transmission language through talks and conversations. Design by Ronnie Fueglister.