MAGAZINE^

Cow Does the Doers - Nova Library - Civic Breakdown
vol 2 no 24 issue 36 Nov. 1-14

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RELATIONAL ART AT THE VPL

HANS WINLKER'S NOVA LIBRARY
BY MARTIN THACKER

Those to whom We have given the Book rejoice at what hath surprised, that after all the data was tallied, Hunter
been revealed unto thee: hut there are among the clans those S. Thompson walked away with the honour of most
who reject. (Surah 13 Al Rad) (The Holy Qur'an)
popular writer, nudging out some of the other icons of
the 6o's and 70's like Ginsburg and Burroughs (whose
LAST WEEK MARKED THE OPENING of the Nova library
book Nova Express is the text the Library takes its
at the VPL. The Nova is a library within a library, a name from).
reading room comprised of books recommended by
Winkler sees the books as a sort of collage of ideas,
the drug-addicted community of East Vancouver. The bringing together the structures of different worlds.
Nova library is also a new site-specific project by con- Books and other cultural products function as signs
ceptual artist Hans Winkler. Based alternately out of for ideas and ideology and in recent years we have
Berlin and New York, Winkler has been making art been forming online communities based on lists of
within the public sphere for over twenty years. Last favourite music, movies and books, reading into the
weekend, while in New York, Winkler generously personalities of strangers based on their preference
participated in a lengthy conversation with the Only in cultural products. This cultural logic has also been
over our high-tech VoIP line and revealed some of his adapted by a number of artists working in various
motivations and concerns with his recent project in media. Art made through the sampling and collage
Vancouver.
of existing cultural works has drawn critical attenThe beginnings of the project go back two years tion and been theorized under the rubric of "Relational
ago when Glen Alteen of the Grunt Gallery invited Aesthetics" and "Post Production" most notably by the
Hans Winkler to do a project here. Being immediately French critic Niccolas Bourriard.
drawn to the East Side for its contradictory nature, he
In the case of Winkler's Nova Library, he can be said
spent time walking around and speaking to people to create an aesthetic through the collage of not only
from VANDU and other organizations. The idea to the texts, but also through playing with the structures
do a library came from noticing a lot of people in the of the larger communities and institutions involved
community liked to read and that junkies spend a lot in the project. The addiction haunting the DTES runs
of time at the public library. So with the help of Glen parallel to the addiction that often haunts writers evAlteen and Chris Livingston, Winkler asked a large erywhere, and is one of the main structural composampling of the addict community to recommend up nents of this relational aesthetic engaged by Winkler.
to three books to be included in the Nova collection. In Berlin a lot of the writers are on drugs, he says, and
The collection now comprises an eclectic set of the connection between writing and drug addiction
over five hundred books and is collaged together in does seem to claim a universality spanning cultures
odd arrangements. For example, one can find the and time. Like Li Po, my favourite ancient Chinese
Qur'an next to Ken Kesey. The dominant themes of poet, who writes incredibly nuanced accounts of his
the collection seem to be the hippy and beat writers, various drunken states.
native spirituality, various self-help manuals, and a
For the next four weeks, the Nova library can be found on
lot of fantasy and science fiction (running the gamut the main level of the VPl in the 'recreational reading area'
from Aldous Huxley to Conan books). No one was too where it has displaced the Western genre fiction.

Dream (311 W. Cordova) is opening a show of new works by Colleen
Baran entitled Clouds (pictured) on Thursday, Nov 3rd at 7:00. Then
there will be lots to do on Friday the 4th, International writer and curator
Jens Hoffman will be speaking at Emily Carr (Granville Island). At
Access Artist Run Centre, Peter Conlin opens his show Between All and
Nothing. Later at 10pm, the members of Book of Lists will be showing
art and performing some music at Anti Social.
And at The Helen Pitt backroom gallery, Terry Ray Brown has a solo
show.

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martin@onlymagazine.ca

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