EWA airport, terminal B, gate 46

 
 
potlatch.doc <printed matter for waiting rooms>
Book 64 pages, full-colour, 240 x 290 mm, ISBN 2-9515349-1-4, 1st run 2001, 2nd run 2002
Free distribution on-going

potlatch.doc is a book specifically designed for waiting rooms. Following the visual paradigm of loss and exploring related issues through a diverse imagery (advertisement, photo-journalism, snapshot, illustration, children books, archive...), it unravels as a re-reading of an encyclopedic imagery of loss, in a waiting situation ironically considered as a potlatch, a waste, an unproductive expense.

The book is being given out for free in waiting rooms, as well as any other space where waiting is involved. The aim is to reach any waiting room equipped with a coffe table - and beyond, a random and untargeted readership that only the situation defines. 

So far, potlatch.doc has been made available in public buildings, airports and airplanes, train stations and trains, bus stops, unemployment agencies, hospitals, doctors practices, beauty parlours, laundrettes, public benches, shops, notaries, gas stations, embassies, banks, post offices, insurance companies a.o. in Paris, Orleans, Nantes, Nancy, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna, Innsbruck, Verona, Hamburg, Münster, Göttingen, Kassel, Berlin,  Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Istanbul, Athens, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah, London, Manchester, Norwich, Budapest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Kiev, Riga, Stockholm, Malmö, Helsinki, Szczecin, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, and New York. And more soon.

This mode of distribution seeks to connect the content of the publication with the context of reading and provides us with an alternative strategy to market-driven book-selling by emphasizing loss as a positive factor. Similar to the actual potlatch where wealth is created through destruction, potlatch.doc aims at turning a loss of time into a gain of awareness, in the context of a post-industrial society where leisure and newly discovered free-time open up new fields of reflexion.
 
 
 

 
Flight Gandalf Airlines 311, CDG-VRN

 

 
Voiture 2 (1e classe), TGV 8822, Nantes-Paris

 

 

 
HEL airport, departure hall 3, check-in area

 


 
Allgemeines KrankenHaus, Wien

 
Let's face It, House of Health and Beauty, 72 Upper Mill Street, Cape Town 

 
Avant Premiere Coiffure Mixte, 6 rue Paul Bellamy, Nantes

 
Pamukkale Imbiss, Werner-Hilpe-Strasse, Kassel

 
U-Bahnhof Baumwall, Hamburg

 
East 52nd street / Park Ave, New York City

 

hancock twr Hancock Tower, 875 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago

EC25 EC 25, Dortmund Hbf - Budapest Keleti pu

ATH  ATH airport, departure hall

 
TLV Central bus terminal, Tel Aviv 

Zagreb Glavni kolodvor, Zagreb 

Riga Autoosta, Riga 

Wash and clean Wash n Clean on East 14, 512 East 14th Street, New York City

 
Union Sq Union Square Subway Station, New York City 

Ist Savoy Hotel, Siraselviler Cad. No 29, Istanbul 

miami Metro Mover, Miami 


AMS airport, Schiphol Plazza

 
Treppenhaus, Berggasse 19, Wien


De Tweede Kammer coffeeshop, Heisteeg 6, Amsterdam

STD STD airport, gate 31




 
etc...