Projects / The Destituent Lab / From Pirate to Ghost
Partners: Yota Ioannidou
See poster work.
The research in relation to the “alternative library” in Bucharest started during my short stay inBucharest in 2022 as part of the destituent lab. Perceiving the “alternative library” as an entry point to a new locality to me, derived from my personal political perspective and my artistic practice,exploring a trope I could identify without feeling alien or invasive or a parachuting artist. An entry point to scrutinize what a destituent practice might mean, what such a practice might constitute, at least to some extent if not completely.
The alternative library in Bucharest started in 2010 between a home and a public library. All the Library locations – near the North Station, on Episcopul Radu Street, near the Muncii Square , were a combination of co-housing and library project.
For financial reasons, such as the inability to pay rent to house it in a fixed space, it was driven to travel frequently, making several stops in its short life. Many times it would disappear and reappear in another neighbourhood of Bucharest, as usual in a self-contained space.
I tried to find out where the alternative library was located the current moment. I did not succeed beyond digitally tracing the library through the web. I managed to collect information via interviews, announcements of events, blogs and a pdf including the catalogue of the books hosted by the library.
The catalogue of the books obviously indicates the content of the library and what kind of political context provided (political theory related to anarchism, feminist theory, philosophy, history). But at the same time, if one looks carefully at the list, due to the classification with publication dates and in which language each book is published, one realizes the political and movement gap between many decades since anarchist ideology was unclaimed due to “actually existing socialism”.
The alternative library as DIY project and not a traditional institution, I assume, fills this gap and asserts a path through a semi-pirate practice. Beyond books and meetings, beyond an experimentation between private and public spheres, the alternative library invents urban “islands” as temporary autonomous spheres.
Although, pirate characteristics can be discerned due to the constant relocation of the library within Bucharest, the fact that I couldn't figure out where the alternative library is now located and actually where is the content as the books, zines etc. transforms its pirate state to a ghost one. A ghost that disappears and reappears again and again.
Developed in the context of The Destituent Lab, Bucharest, 2022.
Partners to the project: Brandon LaBelle, Quote—Unquote , Daniela Custrin, Yota Ioannidou, María García Ruiz, Lise Skou, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan