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Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine

Oslo

In 2010 Mette Edvardsen started the performance project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine, in which a group of people dedicate themselves to memorizing a book of their choice. Together they form a library of ‘living books’. The readings take place as intimate one-to-one encounters where the ‘book’ recites its content for the ‘reader’. Since then, the project gradually grew to where it is today: a library, a bookshop, a publishing house, over 130 living books in 20 different languages across Europe and beyond, workshops, an exhibition format, lectures and talks. And underlying all this is an ongoing practice of making time to memorize and read out loud to each other and visiting readers.

The publishing house Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine has published books rewritten from memory and made into new editions, an essay series called Afternoon Editions with singular new texts written on invitation, the larger publication Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine - A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books (eds. Mette Edvardsen, Kristien Van den Brande, Victoria Pérez Royo, Runa Borch Skolseg & co-published by Mousse Publishing), and The Appendixes #1-4, an editorial series by Mette Edvardsen, Léa Poiré and Victoria Pérez Royo that developed out of the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine during a two-years residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers in the suburbs of Paris.

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Publications

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine - A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books (2019)

ISBN–9788269020427

Edited by Mette Edvardsen, Kristien Van den Brande, Victoria Pérez Royo, Runa Borch Skolseg

Texts by Mette Edvardsen, Kristien Van den Brande, Johan Sonnenschein, Bruno De Wachter, Sébastien Hendrickx, Lizzie Thomson, Sébastien Hendrickx, Victoria Pérez Royo, Jon Refsdal Moe, Bojana Cvejić, Melanie Fieldseth, Jeroen Peeters, Lara Khaldi, Emiliano Battista, Thomas Bîrzan, Susanne Christensen, Olivia Fairweather, Laurence Rassel

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Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine Appendix #1: The gesture of writing (2024)

ISBN–978-82-693555-0-5

The Appendixes #1–4 is an editorial series by Mette Edvardsen, Léa Poiré and Victoria Pérez Royo that developed out of the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. For a two-year residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers* (2022–23), they came together as a small work group, shaping the work process, hosting presentation formats and making this publication series on paper as four cahiers.

The cahiers comprise a collection of commissioned texts and contributions created for this context, selected documents and traces from work sessions and encounters organized during their residency, texts read together and republished for this occasion, a collection of references, notes in progress, unfinished thoughts and loose fragments – on paper, between pages.

The Appendixes are organized around four themes: (1) The gesture of writing, (2) How to organize a library, (3) Orality and (4) Translation. In addition to being published on paper, the editorial series also consisted of other formats of presentations, exchanges and meetings organized as workshops, fieldwork, performances, conferences, collective readings and oral publications, taking place during their residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and in the vicinity.

The Appendixes is the work that continues, material that adds on, some of it perhaps too long or too detailed, unfit or unfinished. The four themes that their research is formulated around originate in specific experiences and questions from the practices of Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010 – ongoing), and also the large publication on the project ‘A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books’ (2019). The research was both a means of exploring these themes in greater depth and also of bringing them into contact with other artists and researchers working on similar or related subjects. The Appendixes offered them both the contexts and the pretexts for things to happen (in time, in space, on paper).

The Appendixes #1–4, published in these cahiers, do not present an overview or a summary of all of the activities and presentations that took place during the two years at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers. What these cahiers offer is a space in which to hold some thoughts together and to share them in this form. It is one more step along the way, extending the research and work already begun and that will now continue.

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine Appendix #2: How to organize a library (2024)

The Appendixes #1–4 is an editorial series by Mette Edvardsen, Léa Poiré and Victoria Pérez Royo that developed out of the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. For a two-year residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers* (2022–23), they came together as a small work group, shaping the work process, hosting presentation formats and making this publication series on paper as four cahiers.

The cahiers comprise a collection of commissioned texts and contributions created for this context, selected documents and traces from work sessions and encounters organized during their residency, texts read together and republished for this occasion, a collection of references, notes in progress, unfinished thoughts and loose fragments – on paper, between pages.

The Appendixes are organized around four themes: (1) The gesture of writing, (2) How to organize a library, (3) Orality and (4) Translation. In addition to being published on paper, the editorial series also consisted of other formats of presentations, exchanges and meetings organized as workshops, fieldwork, performances, conferences, collective readings and oral publications, taking place during their residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and in the vicinity.

The Appendixes is the work that continues, material that adds on, some of it perhaps too long or too detailed, unfit or unfinished. The four themes that their research is formulated around originate in specific experiences and questions from the practices of Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010 – ongoing), and also the large publication on the project ‘A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books’ (2019). The research was both a means of exploring these themes in greater depth and also of bringing them into contact with other artists and researchers working on similar or related subjects. The Appendixes offered them both the contexts and the pretexts for things to happen (in time, in space, on paper).

The Appendixes #1–4, published in these cahiers, do not present an overview or a summary of all of the activities and presentations that took place during the two years at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers. What these cahiers offer is a space in which to hold some thoughts together and to share them in this form. It is one more step along the way, extending the research and work already begun and that will now continue.

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine Appendix #3 Orality (2024)

The Appendixes #1–4 is an editorial series by Mette Edvardsen, Léa Poiré and Victoria Pérez Royo that developed out of the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. For a two-year residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers* (2022–23), they came together as a small work group, shaping the work process, hosting presentation formats and making this publication series on paper as four cahiers.

The cahiers comprise a collection of commissioned texts and contributions created for this context, selected documents and traces from work sessions and encounters organized during their residency, texts read together and republished for this occasion, a collection of references, notes in progress, unfinished thoughts and loose fragments – on paper, between pages.

The Appendixes are organized around four themes: (1) The gesture of writing, (2) How to organize a library, (3) Orality and (4) Translation. In addition to being published on paper, the editorial series also consisted of other formats of presentations, exchanges and meetings organized as workshops, fieldwork, performances, conferences, collective readings and oral publications, taking place during their residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and in the vicinity.

The Appendixes is the work that continues, material that adds on, some of it perhaps too long or too detailed, unfit or unfinished. The four themes that their research is formulated around originate in specific experiences and questions from the practices of Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010 – ongoing), and also the large publication on the project ‘A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books’ (2019). The research was both a means of exploring these themes in greater depth and also of bringing them into contact with other artists and researchers working on similar or related subjects. The Appendixes offered them both the contexts and the pretexts for things to happen (in time, in space, on paper).

The Appendixes #1–4, published in these cahiers, do not present an overview or a summary of all of the activities and presentations that took place during the two years at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers. What these cahiers offer is a space in which to hold some thoughts together and to share them in this form. It is one more step along the way, extending the research and work already begun and that will now continue.

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine Appendix/Appendice #4: Translation/Traduction (2024)

ISBN–978-82-693555-3-6

The Appendixes #1–4 is an editorial series by Mette Edvardsen, Léa Poiré and Victoria Pérez Royo that developed out of the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. For a two-year residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers* (2022–23), they came together as a small work group, shaping the work process, hosting presentation formats and making this publication series on paper as four cahiers.

The cahiers comprise a collection of commissioned texts and contributions created for this context, selected documents and traces from work sessions and encounters organized during their residency, texts read together and republished for this occasion, a collection of references, notes in progress, unfinished thoughts and loose fragments – on paper, between pages.

The Appendixes are organized around four themes: (1) The gesture of writing, (2) How to organize a library, (3) Orality and (4) Translation. In addition to being published on paper, the editorial series also consisted of other formats of presentations, exchanges and meetings organized as workshops, fieldwork, performances, conferences, collective readings and oral publications, taking place during their residency at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and in the vicinity.

The Appendixes is the work that continues, material that adds on, some of it perhaps too long or too detailed, unfit or unfinished. The four themes that their research is formulated around originate in specific experiences and questions from the practices of Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010 – ongoing), and also the large publication on the project ‘A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books’ (2019). The research was both a means of exploring these themes in greater depth and also of bringing them into contact with other artists and researchers working on similar or related subjects. The Appendixes offered them both the contexts and the pretexts for things to happen (in time, in space, on paper).

The Appendixes #1–4, published in these cahiers, do not present an overview or a summary of all of the activities and presentations that took place during the two years at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers. What these cahiers offer is a space in which to hold some thoughts together and to share them in this form. It is one more step along the way, extending the research and work already begun and that will now continue.

Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine - Rewriting (2015-2020)

In addition to the ongoing process of learning by heart and reciting from memory, a handful of performers started (re)writing the books from memory. During the process of learning the books by heart and reciting them, the intention was to remain as close as possible to the originals. In the process of rewriting the intention was to bring the spoken version of the books, now existing in the memory, back to paper. So far a series of ten editions has been published, all of which unique books in the sense that they reveal different methods and poetics used in the original writing and in learning by heart. The project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine acts as the publishing house for these editions, and they are distributed within the context of the project.

Rêveries du promeneur solitaire de Jean-Jacques Rousseau de Sarah Ludi

Een dag in 't jaar door Herman Gorter door Johan Sonnenschein

Verzamelde gedichten / Against the forgetting: Selected Poems by Hans Faverey by Bruno De Wachter

I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume by Mette Edvardsen

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville by Kristien Van den Brande

Elias, of het gevecht met de nachtegalen door Maurice Gilliams door Wouter Krokaert

Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot by Sébastien Hendrickx

Monsieur Songe de Robert Pinget de Vincent Dunoyer

Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde von Emine Sevgi Özdamar von Sonia Si Ahmed

Il fucile da caccia di Inoue Yasushi di Irena Radmanovic

Go here for more info and pictures.

Afternoon Editions 1, 2, 4 and 5 (2018-2022)

Afternoon Editions is a series of commissioned texts that extends from the project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. They are published in a stapled and easy to produce format. Afternoon Editions is dedicated to sharing content in various forms, related to books, memory, reading, writing and publishing. It is about circulation and exchange of ideas.

Afternoon Editions no. 1: an essay by Jeroen Peeters titled Reseeding the library, gleaning readership. In May 2017, Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine settled during three weeks in the Ravenstein Gallery in Brussels as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. Invited as a writer in residence, Jeroen Peeters visited the library of living books on a daily basis and recorded his observations by hand in a notebook, which formed the basis for Afternoon Edition no. 1. Reseeding the library, gleaning readership is an essay on the seed library, on the dispersion of literature through wind, water and animals, on biodiversity and commoning at the heart of readership. On the cover a drawing by Wouter Krokaert of a Philodendron Xanadu. Published May 2018.

Afternoon Editions no. 2: text and drawings by Chrysa Parkinson titled Weaknesses. Between January and March 2019 Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine was presented as a solo-exhibition at Index Foundation in Stockholm. During this period Chrysa Parkinson was invited as a guest writer for Afternoon Editions. Weaknesses is a leap in memory. Published July 2020.

Afternoon Editions no. 4: Certain Things by Claudia La Rocco. A day can be a composition not unlike an essay. Full of possibilities, full of limitations, bound by universal structures and marked by idiosyncratic desires. You go on walks. You read. You do your chores. All the while memory and other forms of imagination keep time with you. Books are strange companions; writing is a lonely thing rich with consolations. Certain Things is a text by Claudia La Rocco, created with and through ideas such as these. Published September 2022.

Afternoon Editions no. 5: a collection of found papers annotated by Jeroen Peeters, titled Bookmarks of sorts. During several years Jeroen Peeters collected notes left by readers in library books: faded reader tickets, scraps with notes, a shopping list, train tickets and other little papers used as bookmarks. He noted each time the date and the book in which they were found. Afterwards he wrote commentaries to this collection, an essay on alternative reading practices, marginalia and extra-illustration, on the exchange between readers and the imaginary community lingering in all those library books. Published in 2021.