During a six month residency in China (September 2009 - March 2010), the artist duo Vermeir & Heiremans began their research for a new video project that would focus on the artist as entrepreneur set against the backdrop of a globalized society wherein the economy figures as the ultimate measure of things. In 2012 the finished work will have its inaugural presentation in a solo exhibition at Argos, Brussels, from 28 January to 1 April. The exhibition will present a multiple screen video installation: The Residence (a wager for the afterlife).

Vermeir & Heiremans accepted an invitation by Extra City to engage in the topics the video touches upon and think about a way to disclose the extensive visual and textual research that went into the production of the work. In response they developed The Residence (reading room), a proposal that visualises and discusses the themes of The Residence.

Reading Room is in essence what the title says it is: a room to read, and to listen. It presents itself as a dense cabinet of curiosities. Its source material springs directly from the research Vermeir & Heiremans conducted in preparation for the video project. The presentation of that material, which consists mainly of documentary images and text, but also sound and video fragments, is extracted from its intricate context in the video installation.

The display of these materials will not be fixed, but, casual as their presentation may be, will be selected scrupulously to interact with a programme of presentations by a fine cast of people. In this respect the reading room will be activated on a regular basis, with lectures, screenings and book presentations, each time taking a different perspective on a predefined subject.

Reading Room will take the form of a display feature. The design, conceived as part of a stylistic whole that includes the exhibition design in Argos, will be produced in collaboration with the Chinese architect Ma Wen. Reading Room will be installed in Extra City's project space.

A project in collaboration with Argos, Brussels and deBuren, Brussels.

Documentation

Programme The Residence