Reading: Chris Kraus, Trace

Chris Kraus will visit Index for a reading from her in-progress research about the biography of American underground writer Kathy Acker (1947–97). Kraus, who was a participant in Index’ recent exhibition Autobiography, is known for her approach to biography as a literary form that exists in the friction between writer and subject.

Over a couple of days in December 1997, Kathy Acker’s friends Matias Viegner and Ira Silverberg exchanged a flurry of emails about what to do with the late writer’s cremains. Acker had died two weeks before at an alternative treatment clinic in Tijuana, having lived in various cities during her relatively short but prolific career. Silverberg, her former agent proposed, not unreasonably that “…a little in San Francisco, London and New York might be nice.”
Where to inter the remains of those who live in a state of perpetual transience? The question begets a black comedy that throws into relief the fragmented state of transnational life.

Greek-born, Berlin-based artist Yorgos Sapoutzis stages videotaped sculptural interventions upon the city’s historic monuments. As he explains, “When I moved to Berlin, I didn’t know who the public sculptures depicted, I just knew they were important for somebody.”

In this essay-in-progress, Kraus suggests ways that certain writings and art works may supplant the function of monument in post-civic life. Prose as a marking – photographs and installations that capture the psychic, sensate and physical texture of transient life: the Tijuana grave of Juan Soldado, patron saint of border crossers; Dorothy Richardson’s 105-page account of the life of a dental assistant in London in 1916; Kate Durbin’s transcription of Kim Kardashian’s fairy tale wedding; the psycho-documentary photographs of Leigh Ledare; and the installations of Parker Ito …

Chris Kraus is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate (2012), and two books of art and cultural criticism. Her monograph on conceptual art and economic activism, Lost Properties, was written for the the 2014 Whitney Biennial. The first Swedish translation of her novel I Love Dick has just been published by Modernista. Kraus is a co-editor of the independent press Semiotexte in Los Angeles, and a Professor of Creative Writing at the European Graduate School. She is presently working on a critical biography of the American writer Kathy Acker.

Admission: 50 SEK
Tickets can be bought in advance by payments through Swish (+46 73 9371250, please indicate the number of tickets and the reference: Chris Kraus). Once we received payment the tickets can be picked up anytime before the event at Index’ office. Tickets can be also bought during opening hours, payments by cash or cards.

The event is part of a series of readings and discussions with Chris Kraus, organized by Index in partnership with Modernista, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Göteborgs Litteraturhus, Kungl. Konsthögskolan and Konstfack. Other events in this series are:

Sun 29 May 2016, 18:00
Chris Kraus i samtal med Jenny Tunedal
Göteborg Litteraturhuset, Lagerhuset, Heurlins plats 1, 413 01 Göteborg

Tue 31 May 2016, 13:00
Guest lecture, Chris Kraus
Konstfack, Space: Mandelgren, LM Ericssons väg 14, 126 27 Stockholm

Thu 2 June2016, 19:30
Chris Kraus I samtal med Ida Linde, Internationell Författarscen
Kulturhuset Stadtsteatern, Sergels torg, 111 57 Stockholm

Fri 3 June, 17:00
Talk, Chris Kraus: Lost Properties
Kungl. Konsthögskolan, MFA Exhibition Collect Yourself, Sergelgatan 8-10, Stockholm