Saturday, 4 September, 8pm Kreuzung an Sankt Helena, Bornheimer Str. 130, 53119 Bonn We warmly invite you to the publication launch of Divine Drudgery, with a newly conceived composition by Sarah Davachi with choir and ensemble, and projections by James Richards. Divine Drudgery Edited by: Fatima Hellberg, James Richards, and Leslie Thornton With work and contributions by: Horst Ademeit, Rae Armantrout, Tolia Astakhishvili, Ed Atkins, Kirsty Bell, Adelhyd van Bender, Bruce Conner, Fatima Hellberg, Mason Leaver-Yap, Veit Loers, Terence McCormack, James Richards, Jens Thornton, Leslie Thornton, and Thomas Zummer Publishers: Bonner Kunstverein, Malmö Konsthall, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Lenz Press Design: Karl Kolbitz and Nicoletta Dalfino Spinelli This evening of performance marks the closing of a season of programming at the Bonner Kunstverein reflecting on care and obligation and a collaborative and process-based mode and ethos of working. At its core is Divine Drudgery, an artist book with collages and artworks by artists and filmmakers James Richards and Leslie Thornton, and contributions by artists, writers and poets centred around liminality and the aesthetics and politics of the invisible. The eponymous composition conceived for Living in the Radiant Cold,  and performed by musician and composer Sarah Davachi with a choir, and ensemble across organ, brass and strings, and the video projections of Richards are focused on channeling the book on the one hand and one of its key contributors, Horst Ademeit, on the other. A core strand of the content of both Davachi's score and the source of Richard’s video is a large body of annotated photographs by Horst Ademeit (1937-2010). The late artist's Daily Photographs and his Observation Photographs are remarkable time capsules with a specific and systematic gaze as they were intended to capture invisible rays, radiation and energies; a form of psychic, immaterial mapping, within which the ray is traveling through bodies and objects. That notion of moving through the skin, the fragility, embodiment, or monstrosity are all important layers across both book and event, coordinates outlined in the following production notes: morphing body /body dysmorphia, rays traveling through bodies / remnants of an analogue technology spilling over into something digital / registers that feel hallucinogenic, psychedelic, teetering on the edge / containers and their leakiness / a sense of crisis and surrealism (surrealism emerging at a moment of intense breakdown). These dialogues and strands are anchored in and loop back to three exhibitions developed by the editors: Speed (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart), Speed II (Malmö Konsthall), and The Holding Environment (Bonner Kunstverein), and radiate outwards. With special thanks to the contributors of the book and the event, to Susanne Zander, Nicole Delmes, Lisa Arndt, Ben Caton, Andreas Hölscher, Michael Kleine, Julia Stoschek, Lisa Long, Mats Stjernstedt, Johanna Markert, and Kreuzung an Sankt Helena To further add context and background to this event, we warmly recommend: Horst Ademeit / Saioa Fischer Abaigar Ich fordere Sie auf, das Einsteigen in Meine Wohnung zu unterlaßen! September 4 – October 30, 2021 Opening on Friday Sept 3, 11am – 10pm Delmes & Zander, Cologne Lindenstr. 20-22 D-50674 ____ Realised with the generous support of Julia Stoschek Funded by Musikfonds, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Neustart Kultur, and Kreuzung an St Helena.