NOTES – ORIGINAL(2016-2026)/LOG

This is a log/archive of the travelings of the annotated book Echolalias, On the Forgetting of Language by Daniel Heller- Roazen, related to the project Notes

The book’s journey started in October 2016 and it will continue for 10 years. At first it was shared between 7 annotators traveling in a decided order from one to another to their places of residence.
Once the book was annotated it started to travel only from hand to hand (no postal or courier services), from one reader to another. Each reader has a book for a month (or less if wanted) and then he/she decides who will be the following reader. This decision is carefully made and is a gesture based on love, friendship and trust. Once the book is handed over to the new reader, he/she writes us an email with the information containing his/her name, the date and the place where the book was received, and a short description of the circumstances in which the book was received.
These informations are placed on this page and will be updated until the end of October 2026, following the traveling of the book and slowly tracing the cartographies of the emerging reading community.
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Jonas Rutgeerts
recieved the book on 8.11.2016 in Berlin, in Uferstudios, Uferstraße23, 13357 Berlin Germany
« After waiting impatiently I finally found the book resting on my desk. »
*Jonas Rutgeerts was the 1st annotator

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Bojana Kunst
« The book arrived to my home in Frankfurt on 16.11.2016, but I was not at home, I was on my way to Helsinki. It waited for me several days at my desk near the window where I’m working. On the 21st of November I unpacked it, it was very gray and rainy outside and I showed it to my son. He liked very much the color with which I decided I would write, and wanted to see how the book looked like. I remember that the book seemed very delicate, this could be because of Jonas, who annotated the book so carefully before me. Then I took it with me on the floor, on the green carpet, where I started to read it.  »
*Bojana Kunst was the 2nd annotator
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David Weber-Krebs
received the book on 02.12.2016 in Auderghem, Belgium.
« I was in residence in Rome for a longer period and I only came back to Brussels for a few days in order to perform a piece in the city. The book was awaiting me when I arrived. The next day I took a train to Mannheim (Germany) and I started to read it and annotate it there, in the train. »

*David Weber-Krebs was the 3rd annotator
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Paula Caspão
« I was expecting to receive the book on 20.12.2016, but it got lost for a while between Rome and Lisbon, so I only received it on 04.01.2017, a foggy day. In that mean-time the Portuguese Post services kept telling us the book hadn’t crossed the border yet, so it wasn’t their responsibility so far, while the Italian Post services would insist that the book had already left Italy, so it wasn’t their responsibility anymore.
In the morning the book was delivered at my door in Lisbon. I wasn’t at home. I had to go get it personally in the afternoon, at the tiniest Post office of Lisbon, located in the area of Mercado do Forno do Tijolo (Market of the Brick Oven), Rua Maria da Fonte (Mary of the Fountain St.). The woman that received me was kind and talkative, and when she looked at my ID she got very excited about the fact that its expiration date coincided with the birthday of her child (the day only, not the year, though I couldn’t avoid imagining her talking of a past event that would take place again and again in near futures).
*Paula Caspão was the 4th annotator
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Ivana Müller
received the book on 16.01.2017 in the Paris subway, on the station République, crossing of the lines 8 and 5, directly from the hands of Paula Caspão.
« It was an unplanned and almost mysterious meeting. I knew that Paula was in Paris and we tried to make an appointment so that she gives me the book, but we didn’t manage to find the right time to meet that day. So we decided that she would give the book to someone else who would then give it to me. And then, while changing trains on my way to work, on the crossroad of two passengers tunnels, approximately 10 meters under the ground, exactly at 09h42 I spotted Paula in the corner of my eye, almost like a dream. I called her name, we stopped, we gave each other a very big hug, we hardly spoke, we smiled, I almost cried, and Paula took the book from her bag and gave it to me. I have put it in my bag, we hugged again and left our separate ways into the day.
*Ivana Müller was the 5th annotator
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Paz Rojo
received the book on 03.02.2017 in a neighborhood nearby Madrid‘s airport.
 « I received the book on a winter’s sunny day from Ivana. At the same time I had received “the travelling book”, which was a similar project from my child’s kindergarden (with a drawing approach this time). When I mentioned this coincidence to Ivana, she said: It is funny to realize that kindergarden teachers and marginal conceptualists might have similar ideas:) »
*Paz Rojo was the 6th annotator
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Ant Hampton
received the book on 13.02.2017 in Cafe Mok, Rue Antoine Dansaert, Brussels
« David Weber-Krebs handed me the book. During our meeting i bought an expensive cookie. It was large, and I thought due to my ongoing health problems, I shouldn’t eat the whole thing. Two weeks later, having annotated the book, I found half a cookie wrapped up in grease-proof paper in the inside pocket of my bag. »
*Ant Hampton was the 7th and the last annotator
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From there the book started traveling between « readers only ». The first reader was
Agnes Quackels
She received the book on the 11.04.2017 at Gare SNCF de l’Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, Paris.
« Traveling back from a 10 days holiday in Japan, I’ve met Ivana, as agreed, in the main hall of the train station at Charles de Gaulle airport.
I was looking for her and she arrived behind me as if falling from the ceiling.
I received the book from her hands and could feel the care she had for the object, the project and all the people behind it.
I also received from her the information about how to handle it and tried to concentrate on those through my jet-lag confusion.
We talked about life, holidays and work and work seemed to be another planet.
We talked about communities of readers. around Europe;
My 2 oldest kids where then at some distance of us, seated in various positions, reading.
i remember the feeling of being with them and Ivana in a strangely quiet and suspended bubble in the middle of a vast and hectic place, full of passing and traveling people.
Then Ivana left. And it was as if I had closed the book I was reading, The world appeared again in front of my eyes. »

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Pierre Huyghebaert

« On Friday 12.05.2017, my friend Agnes came in the studio where I work in Brussels, we sat and discuss, then she open a bag, inside another brown bag, with inside a cotton bag and inside newspaper folded cover and inside : the book. And yes, this hand to hand delivery was a good opportunity for a meeting!
I’m now curious to read it, and see if my eyes dedouble to follow notes and the main text in the same time, or separately. Maybe testify of this possible move in the book. Let’s see. »

……

On Sunday, 11th of June, i was at the WTC tower 1 in Brussels. The heat was thick. A big bunch of people part of the Techno-Galactic Software Observatory were at their last day of preparation of the Techno-Galactic Walk-In Clinic for the day later. This event is part of the ‘Software as a Critique’ of Constant, a non-profit, artist-run organisation based in Brussels since 1997 and active in the fields of art, media and technology. 
Some group were preparing the Agile Yoga, others the Future Blobservation Booth, or even File therapy. Most of them spread out outside, lying on the multiple short cutted grass zones of the Brussels’s Manhattan area. After a few chat with returning participants, i direct myself toward the service elevator, the one able to welcome bikes like mine. When the doors opens, I stumble upon Femke Snelting, who immediately said a loud ‘Yes!’. 
Femke was answering by voice to my email question of the day before, where i was referring to the project and proposing her to continue the chain. I was inspired by the short decision delay of Agnes, i suppose. At least, i was hesitating between different people able a. to get pleasure when reading the book, b. having a large network to potentially push the book away for abroad dissemination.
Covering ideally one day the full spectrum of places where the letters of the book have lived and has been spoken.

Best,

Pierre Huyghebaert
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