This book is a wheel – a wheel of kinship

The first thing you can do when you get it into your hands is to place it vertically in front of you and open its pages to spread them evenly around the spine.

It might remind you of a tree trunk – out of which such pages are made – with its annual rings. Did you know that the light-coloured rings represent wood that grew in the spring and early summer, while the dark rings represent wood that grew in the late summer and fall? In winter, the tree is resting. It refuses to grow.

One year follows the next. Beginnings being endings, and endings being beginnings. Non-linear time.

It also might remind you of a collective circle – the oldest human ritual of gathering to make communal decisions so that everybody is seen and heard by everybody.

Once you have walked around the tree, a year has passed and the ritual can begin again.

Turning this wheel-is-a-book will open up 12 + 1 perspectives to the reader. Each perspective forms a chapter, which could be read as a book in its own right. Each chapter has its character – an allocated zodiac, a specific recipe, assigned covers and a credits page. Each chapter has been conceptualised by another editorial team, who invited a group of writers to look into their relations to what we think are the most urgent debates the art sector is currently dealing with.

Together they form the wheel of kinship. It’s circulating around an astrological year. Every chapter or text in this circular book can start a new reading cycle – as every singular moment launches a new year, decade or aeon. Speaking of kinship, of course, the proposed circularity is only one possible order. Every text carries multiple relations to any other text in the book. We invite you to gather with other people and open your books on any page. We are sure you will find connections between the texts you see, which will inspire your discussions.

Make yourself part of the process of cross-reading, annotating and debating fair kin art practices!

Make yourself part of the kin art family. This book is your tool – this tool is your book.

A WHEEL WITH AN ACCESS AND AIDS FOR A GOOD READ

AN ACCESS-AXIS

To the 12, there is one additional chapter – let’s call it AN AXIS. (The axis of this wheel, giving an access to this book). It contains some self-critical and some guiding introductions. They explain what we can offer in this almanac and what we cannot. They tell the story of its becoming and address the problems of such a project. They help you to situate yourself in its middle, in our middle.

In case you get lost while riding the wheel – which, of course, we hope you will – you can find the introduction of additional tools in the 13th chapter.

KEYWORD INDEX

A radically democratically unedited keyword index is provided for quick navigation to the topics of your interest based on an alphabetical registry of keywords the authors and editors linked to their texts.

AUTHOR’S INDEX

This index acknowledges and credits all 137 contributors to this almanac and and also indicates where to find their contributions in the book.

QR codes

To facilitate while also shortening your research, never-ending URLs, we decided to cobble the sides of the pages with QR codes for you to stumble over. You will also find the written links behind the QR’s in the text – sometimes as full URLs, sometimes as a path for searching the content online.

Text Type

Additionally, we tried to describe the form, type or tone of each text. The types have specific designs and are mentioned at the side of each contribution. This way, you can detect and search for your preferred type of contribution. You might be more into personal statements or interviews instead of essays, or you are on the search for a pointed political statement or a poem, or you need inspiration for a project.

Easy Read

For easier entry and quick insight, we provide an easy read for the more complex and challenging reads. These short texts help to orient you in the general discourse the text is situated in and can serve as a door through which the full text becomes more accessible.

A tree has branches, roots and leaves

A trunk is round, but branches unfold and intertwine. Roots entangle. Leaves change colours and fly off – life continues. Branches let leaves go; they are essential to cover naked roots and ensure the tree’s survival through harsh times.

Each contribution is a leaf in a network to be compared and discussed in relation to any other in this book. It is a book to work with (to unfold), to complete, (to intertwine and entangle) – to overcome. And if you don’t want to enter right now, just leave the book alone. It will root into the system by itself. But in this case, you will miss out on hearing the more than 130 voices that speak in this circle! Because this book is not only the echo of a tree trunk, not only the spin of a wheel, but also a choir. Listen, by reading between the lines, between the articles and between the pages, you will hear the symphony, a compilation from the Belgian art scene.