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PAUL presents a personal history of Kunstinstituut Melly through the life, experience, and hands-on-work of its longest employee to date: Paul van Gennip. An indefatigable person, Paul worked at this contemporary art center from its foundation in 1990 until his retirement in 2024. One constant in a place committed to experimentation and change, Paul was part of numerous transformations, including the recent renaming from Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art to Kunstinstituut Melly.
A visual catalog created by THE KOKRA FAMILY—the artist duo line kramer and marjolijn kok—forms the main component of this book. It pictures hundreds of objects that Paul accumulated and kept over the years. This inventory contains everything from tools to materials to remnants of exhibitions, which Paul stored throughout the building, whether in Melly’s cellar, archive, or the office areas upstairs.
PAUL also includes new texts by Moosje M. Goosen, Roland Groenenboom, Reyn van der Lugt, Vivian Sky Rehberg, and Nathalie Zonnenberg. These contributions are conversation pieces that speak about the contemporary art and material culture of our times, as much as about the inseparable lives of Kunstinstituut Melly and Paul.
Contents:
- Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Melly and Paul
- Reyn van der Lugt, Paul's Formative Years
- Moosje M. Goosen, A Day with Paul
- Nathalie Zonnenberg, Paul and the Seven Directors: An Institutional History
- Moosje M. Goosen and Melly's Team, A Poem about Paul
- Roland Groenenboom, PAUL: Pragmatic, Attentive, Unique, Loyal
- Vivian Sky Rehberg, A Letter for Paul
- THE KOKRA FAMILY, A Picture Index: Furniture, Maquette, Loved objects, Tools, DIY, Other, Soft, Institute, Machines,
- Funders
- Staff
- Colophon
Colophon
Editor: Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy
Artistic commission: THE KOKRA FAMILY
Contributors: Moosje M. Goosen, Roland Groenenboom, Reyn van der Lugt, Vivian Sky Rehberg, Nathalie Zonnenberg
Image credits: Paul van Gennip and THE KOKRA FAMILY
Editorial coordinators: Harriet Foyster, Milou van Lieshout, Wendy van Slagmaat-Bos
Editorial Assistant: Yusser al Obaidi
Copy editors: Annemarie van den Berg, Harriet Foyster
Translators: Milou van Lieshout, Mirjam Linschoten, Marie Louise Shoondergang
Design: 75B
Printer: Drukkerij Boonen, Hamont-Achel, Belgium
ISBN: 978-94-91435-95-9
Print run, 2024: 1000