Publication
A Fictional Residency

17 June – 30 June 2013

With Oscar van den Boogaard

For “A Fictional Residency” in Hong Kong, Witte de With and Spring have invited Dutch novelist Oscar van den Boogaard as a writer-in-residence at Spring. During his stay in Hong Kong he will be meeting and working with Hong Kong-based artists, journalists, and writers Nadim Abbas, Enoch Cheng, Doretta Lau and MAP Office. The four-day writing session will culminate in an eponymous book of short stories launched on June 29, 2013, at Spring.

Click here to download your own digital copy of the book A Fictional Residency.

In tandem with the book presentation, artist and curator Heman Chong directs A Fictional Residency‘s version of Lucia Melts (2001), a play by Oscar van den Boogaard that will be performed at Spring. More info on Open Studio Night, June 29.

‘Who are you?’

‘I, I, no.’

‘A name.’

‘I, I, I can’t.’

‘Where are you from?’

‘I…’

‘A place.’

‘I can’t say it.’

‘You have to say it.’

‘But I don’t know.’

‘A place.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘You have to.’

A nightmare. The biography. The facts kill the truth.

‘Who are you.’

I’m, I’m … to know me you must know my friends and my loved ones and know which books I like, and which films and what kind of art and architecture and what kind of landscapes I like and clothes and colors and what types of food I like, at which times, you must know where I’ve been and have been there when I was there, to know who I am you should see the world through my eyes.

‘Who are you?’

The conversations I have, the things a fantasize over, those I have thought over and those I felt, I am what I cried over and what I have longed for, how could anyone ever understand me?

‘What is the book about?’

‘Me, me.’

‘You’re the writer.’

‘The book is about the time when I was writing the book.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘The things that happen, what I was thinking of, who I loved, who I hated, the artwork I didn’t understand.’

‘I want the story, sir. The short version of the story.’

‘I can’t tell you.’

‘You have to.’

A nightmare. The story is to the novel what the biography is to the writer. The facts kill the truth.

From Sensaties, Oscar van den Boogaard, 2000

  • DateJune 15 - 30, 2013
  • TypeWriter / Publications
  • CostFree

A Part of Moderation(s)

Moderation(s) is a year-long collaboration that will unfold in 2013 between Spring Workshop, Hong Kong, and Witte de With, Rotterdam. Conceived as an anthology of active proposals, Moderation(s) brings together an international group of artists, curators and writers in a year-long program of contemporary discourse and production between the two organisations. Within this framework, the artist Heman Chong will steer the project which will involve more than 50 artists and engender a conference, three exhibitions, three residencies and a book of short stories. Please click here to read more about the program.

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