Grazer Kunstverein moves to the city library
Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński
28.2.2020, 6pm
Stadtbibliothek Zanklhof, Kernstockgasse 2, 8020 Graz
(Gries)



Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński is an artist, art-based researcher, and writer, with a practice grounded in Black feminist theory, and an overarching interest in the past-present-future of Black radical imagination. Her ongoing project Library of Requests addresses gaps in collections of books in various library settings, and redresses these gaps by inviting a plurality of voices to highlight what is missing within a given inventory. Questioning the role of the Kunstverein, and that of a library, by looking at our ongoing relationship to knowledge production and distribution, Kazeem-Kamiński convenes a collective reading in the City Library.

As part of this event Kazeem-Kamiński has compiled the Library of Requests #5, made up of books that speak about the past in the present, books that call attention to residues of colonial violence in the German speaking context, and books that highlight Black artists and Artists of Colour from various contexts, with the aim of continuing to challenge amnesia about colonialism. This collection of books will be acquired and added to the Grazer Kunstverein’s ever-expanding library of books (The Members Library, the Elisabeth Printschitz Library, the Ernst Fischer Library and now, the Library of Requests #5). The books will be available throughout the year in the Depot exhibition and workspace, for visitors to peruse and borrow. More books will be added upon request and in collaboration with the artist. Selected titles include:

Plantation Memories: Episodes of Everyday Racism, Grada Kilomba, 2008/2018.

Talking Back: Strategien Schwarzer österreichischer Geschichtsschreibung, Claudia Unterweger, 2016.

Millis Erwachen. Schwarze Frauen, Kunst und Widerstand. Natasha A. Kelly, 2018.

Imagine Africa: Volume 3 (Pirogue, Band 3), Hrsg. Bhakti Shringarpure, Zanele Muholi u.a.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo, 2018.

Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński (b. 1980) lives and works in Vienna. She is currently a candidate for the PhD program at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński participated in exhibitions in Vienna, Venice, Klagenfurt and Oxford. Her film work has been shown at international festivals in Vancouver, Osnabrück, Graz, Rotterdam, Dortmund, Cologne and Kassel. In 2018 she received the Cathrin Pichler Prize from the Academy of Fine Arts, in 2017 the Gemma scholarship and in 2016 the Theodor Körner Prize.