Organised in cooperation between the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and the project Reading Reading. On an Aesthetic Practice (2024–), Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies".

With contributions by Barbara Bausch, Ulrike Draesner, Robin Coenen & Danielle Rosales, Angélica Freitas, Elias Kreuzmair, Anouk Luhn, Karolin Meunier, Kinga Tóth, Nhã Thuyên and more.

Curated by Barbara Bausch with Mathias Zeiske.

Reading is both an everyday and a mysterious practice. We commonly understand 'reading' as a mental technique that involves the visual recognition of written signs, the actualisation of the sound image of words and the comprehension of their meaning. But at the same time, reading produces something that cannot be derived from what is read alone. Reading is a black box that is difficult to fully comprehend, and when we do, it is only in flagrante. In response to this difficulty, READING READING ROOM brings together scholars and artists to explore and discuss the precarious practice of reading by reflecting on its absolute limit: the illegible. By sounding out the facets of reading that are revealed when what we perceive as successful reading is blocked, the event highlights reading as a practice that is not only a functional act of decoding information, but also an aesthetic, sensual, affective, experimental and political practice in its own right.

This event is part of the format "Reading Reading: IL/LEGIBLE"