14.May 2025 – 18.May 2025
The Performative Book Fair 2025
The Performative Book Fair returns! For the second time, Pajam Masoumi and Alina Buchberger are curating a space in which literature and performance meet and the literary industry is critically examined by marginalised authors, publishers, activists and academics.
From January to April, there will be four readings at Kampnagel as part of the Performative Book Fair. The actual fair will then take place from 14 - 18 May: A fair installation designed by Jo Landt will be created in the Kampnagel foyer, where books and magazines can be read and bought and encounters will take place. In the visitors' toilets, the LITERARY GLORYHOLE, based on a concept by Natali Bhalchandra Abhyankar, invites visitors to enjoy sensual listening experiences with texts and voices. And the APOCALYPSE READING NOOK by British artist Ama Josephine Budge in the West Foyer brings together (super)vital books for apocalyptic presents and futures.
The core theme of the Performative Book Fair 2025 is translation. The translation of languages, the translation of time and space, the translation of experiences and knowledge. Who translates whom, which political contexts need to be taken into account when translating into another language, which languages are forgotten? What role does the archive play in the translation from the past to the present, from one localisation to another, and how can text be translated into space?
What gaps in understanding and projections stand in the way of dialogue, the translation of one human experience into another, and how can discourses be made accessible through translation in order to be politically effective?
The Performative Book Fair addresses these questions in a variety of events: Lectures, panel discussions, readings, parties and workshops will be complemented by the intervention PERFORM A BOOK, the literary criticism programme DAS KRITIKABLE QUEERTETT and the literary performance FLUIDE GLOSSARE by the Berlin project ‘handverlesen’ for deaf and hearing audiences.
Concept/Curation Alina Buchberger, Pajam Masoumi Set design Jo Landt Production management Johanna J. Thomas, Fine Schimmer Curatorial advice Sharon Dodua Otoo Graphics Sandra Mawuto Dotou DGS interpretation Marie Schaper, N. Ostrycharczyk Advice on accessibility and sign language Deaf Kampi
