ADA participated in the exhibition If Mind Were All There Was at Kunstverein Göttingen, and co-organised by AiR Berlin Alexanderplatz. On show were works by former Air Berlin residents. ADA contributed with a collectively conceptualized publication Pick up this book and with a site-specific text installation.

In the form of wall mounted instructional sentences that reflected on the exhibition space as a place of hospitality our aim was to offer an experience in which the visitor felt directly addressed. Inside this space the publication Pick up this book, itself an instruction, was presented on small piles on a table. Similar instructional sentences on how to be a good guest and host or how to use the book are playfully placed in the white margins of the pages or on bookmarks. For instance:  Compliment your host on the attractive centerpieces and the quality of the tableware.  Politely return the smiles of your hosts when they make eye contact.  Be aware of your non-verbal communications.  This book is ideal to use as a coaster for your hot drink.

With Pick up this book we seek to address questions that emerged in the periphery of our collective practice, but became a pivotal interest, concerning hospitality and the documentation of our often ephemeral research based projects. The publication includes work by two thinkers who have provided us with ideas, which profoundly shaped our thinking and formed a continuous presence during our working period in Berlin: the text Hostipitality by Jacques Derrida and Unbounded, Limit’s Possibilities, a lecture by Irit Rogoff, of which a transcription is included. Focusing on a breakfast discussion we organised in Berlin, we set ourselves the task of writing from memory what happened on that day, resulting in six completely different reports, meandering between facts, associative sidetracks and interesting notions that had come up during the event. These texts are complemented by the writer and artist Maria Barnas, whom we asked to be present at the breakfast and write her response to the event.

Pick up this book is thoughtfully designed by Dongyoung Lee Throughout the book the reader will find instructional sentences on welcoming the guest and a series of bookmarks that can direct the use of the book as an object. The publication is available through ADA for 10 euro. Please send an email to info@adarotterdam.nl to require about a copy.