Inauguration: May 9, 2025 at 1 p.m.
Until June 13, 2025 in Espai n-1, UPV Central Library.
Hours: Monday to Friday from 11 am to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 7 pm. Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free access.
Why do artists write novels? What effect does artist’s novel have on the visual arts? How should a novel of this type be experienced? David Maroto’s work is on display at the Universitat Politècnica de València’s Espai n-1 (from May 9 to June 13, 2025), at a time when the debate on the hybridization of visual arts and literature is gaining great significance in the international art scene. David Maroto is a visual artist based in the Netherlands, a former student at the Facultat de Belles Arts de Sant Carles.
Maroto’s project for the UPV’s Espai n-1 consists of a performative installation structured in two parts: The Book Lovers and No moriré por completo (Not All of Me Will Die).
The Book Lovers is the name of the artistic research project on the artist’s novel, carried out by Maroto and curator Joanna Zielińska. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of visual artists creating novels as part of a larger artistic project. They do so with the intention of addressing artistic issues through novelistic resources, favoring a type of art based on process and subjectivity, introducing notions such as fiction, narrative, and imagination. In this sense, it is possible to speak of a new medium within the visual arts, such as video or performance art, for example.
The Book Lovers is based on the creation of a unique collection and bibliography of artists’ novels, with 687 titles. The collection has been acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, which has generously loaned it for the exhibition No un concepto, sino una historia (Not a Concept, But a Story). The collection artists’ novels is displayed here in its entirety, so that the public can freely access and read them. Organized by category (eroticism, fantasy, memories, adventure, drama, art, pure fiction), it is part of an interactive installation, in which a group of performers offer to read passages from the artists’ novels to the exhibition’s visitors, opening up an intimate and personal performance.
The second part of the exhibition focuses on Maroto’s artist’s novel, entitled No moriré por completo (Not All of Me Will Die). This is a reflection on death, memory, writing, and the desire for posterity, which exists as an original handwritten manuscript and is published through a performance. During the session, the artist dictates the content to the participants, each of whom receives a blank book to write in. In this way, the novel is published and distributed in as many copies as there are people participating in the performance. Following this pre-Gutenberg method, each person acquires their own handwritten copy, unique and equal to all the others at the same time. The performance took place on May 8, in the context of the installation in the Espai n-1. The exhibition showcases the resulting new copies, as well as a series of works (sculptures, drawings, murals) that emanate directly from the novel’s narrative.
The exhibition is generously supported by the Dutch Embassy in Spain. This project is the result of the cultural and artistic dialogue between the two countries and highlights the influence of the artistic practices and methodologies acquired in the artist’s professional development.
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David Maroto is a visual artist, writer, curator and researcher based in the Netherlands. D. at the Edinburgh College of Art, with a research project calledThe Artist’s Novel: The Novel as a Medium in the Visual Artswhich has recently been published in a two-volume book (Greylock Editorial).
David has an extensive international artistic practice: 11th Havana Biennial; Warsaw Biennial; Kanal Centre Pompidou (Brussels); W139 (Amsterdam); A Tale of a Tub (Rotterdam); Artium Museum (Vitoria); Extra City (Antwerp); S.M.A.K. (Ghent); EFA Project Space (New York); Galerie La Box (Bourges); Otty Park Gallery (Antwerp); WEST (The Hague); The Opening Gallery (New York); among others.
In 2011, during a residency at ISCP New York, she initiated a collaboration with curator Joanna Zielińska under the name The Book Lovers, a research project based on the creation of a collection and bibliography of artists’ novels, with the continued support of M HKA (Antwerp). The Book Lovers explores the various ways in which the artist’s novel is employed as a medium within the visual arts, organizing exhibitions, public programs, commissions and publications. This collaboration has allowed them to work with a multitude of institutions, including De Appel (Amsterdam); Whitechapel Gallery (London); Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw); CCA Glasgow; Fabra i Coats (Barcelona); Index (Stockholm); Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), among others.
David has published numerous artists’ novels, essays, interviews and articles, and has edited several publications, including. Artist Novels (Sternberg Press, 2015);Tamam Shud (Sternberg Press, 2018); and the journal.Obieg no. 8, ‘Art & Literature: A Mongrel’s Guide’ (2018), as well as the recent article “Valid Fictional Contributions to Non-Fictional Debates: Fictocritical Writing in Artistic Research” (Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis).
David has extensive experience as a visiting professor at international art academies such as the Dutch Art Institute; Gerrit Rietveld Academy; XPUB Piet Zwart Institute; Sint Lucas Antwerpen; Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon; Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais, Sierre (Switzerland); Glasgow School of Art; and Stockholm University, among others. In addition to teaching, he has given various courses, workshops and seminars, such as theCollective Novel Workshop at the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid.