Microreview: A Colourful Flock in Expansion

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La Dépendance. Photo: Gabriel Gee, 2024
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The library at La Dépendance. Photo: Gabriel Gee 2024
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The library at La Dépendance. Photo: Gabriel Gee 2024
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LP's are part of the library at La Dépendance. Photo: Gabriel Gee 2024
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Jan Van Oordt tells about the library (link to interview below) link in the infotable)
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La Dépendance. Photo: Gabriel Gee, 2024
Date
2024 September
Subtitle
Gabriel Gee reviews the library at La Dépendance artist residency in the Swiss Jura outside of St-Imier. Initiated and run by the artist Jan Van Oordt since 2018.
Type
microreview
Author / Publisher
Gabriel N. Gee for NewsLibrary
Author Info

Gabriel N.Gee is an art historian and writer based in Switzerland, with particular interest in interconnected global histories and contemporary artistic research. He is the co-founder of the interdisciplinary TETI Group (www.tetigroup.org) and co-organizer of the SARN work group Art & Industry.

Language

English

Also published here

Newsletter No. 65

Instagram @sarn_switzerland

Reviewed Publication

The library at La Dépendance artist residency in the Swiss Jura outside of St-Imier. Initiated and run by the artist Jan Van Oordt since 2018.

The shelves go up the mountain in Spring, and down in the valley below in Autumn. The shepherd also guides the books to their summer abode, a field house on the edge of the forest. The books come in varied shades, from unruly black to incandescent white, from fiery gold to revolutionary red; some bask in muddy terrain – know thy enemy – others stretch their voluminous bodies in technical meticulosity. Greens are the most hybrid: taxonomy, mycelium, botany-greens; poetic, walkabout, fictional-greens; eco-feminist, non-human, trans-greens, attuned to the surrounding landscape.

Interspecies communication is welcomed: a vibrant herd of vinyl records accompany the transhumance every year. To listen to the landscape, is as important as to read the signs of a conflicted world.

Every once in a while, the shepherd hosts humans, who are encouraged to mingle with the multitude. In other respects, the humans are left to roam freely. But when the time comes for them to depart, he will remind them they can only do so if they offer as yet unknown specimens to the flock. That is the secret of the library’s prolific expansion.