Many-Splendoured Thing. Gê Orthof & Raphael Fonseca for Manchester-Brazil 2016

About

Inspired by the story of a mother in Brazil who collected old books from landfill sites to allow her son to study and pass his college entrance exams, Gê's project involves the use of discarded books and invites all visitors who'd like to be included to contribute one volume to The Portico's welcome desk.

We believe

that a book is an ever-changing-tension-object,

[always in a blank suspension]

its turning pages,

[like waves]

infinite task of writing

revealing and erasing

our certainties…

to welcome a new day!

The street library

We would love to welcome you in participating in an artistic intervention at The Portico Library by donating a book (an ordinary one, of no special value) that will integrate The Street Library, an art project developed by Gê Orthof and Raphael Fonseca – visual artist and curator from Brazil - that will open in June.

The value of a book - of any book, from the special collections to the streets, donated or discarded - is pregnant with the ability of infecting us with life and health. Let us open the doors and welcome the waves, the precious and the discarded books, the new day, with love, courage and hospitality.

Thank you, Gê and Raphael.

Gê Orthof is one of the winners of the Prêmio Marcantônio Vilaça CNI Sesi Senai, the largest contemporary art prize in Brazil. His work will feature in HOME's upcoming group exhibition Behind the Sun and deals with social conditions, history and narrative processes, "placing on the ground, between the desire and the event, stories and histories - between the images that we project in the sky and what happens to us on earth" (Simone Osthof, Penn State University).

Guest curated by Raphael Fonseca with support from Manchester School of Art, HOME and Plano Cultural.