Fellow Readers #14: Leonie Herweg, Berlin
Fellow Readers is all about highlighting a new book lover from our community, their current projects and favorite reads.
Leonie Herweg is one of the curators of the biennial Manifesta 16, co-founder of the project space GROTTO, as well as Café Tiergarten in Berlin’s Hansaviertel. With the small exhibition vitrine in the Schwedenhaus on Altonaer Straße, GROTTO creates a space where contemporary art connects directly with the local community. Texts, art publications, and reading are central to Leonie’s work as many projects begin with a book or an idea from literature. For our newsletter, we asked her about her reading habits and current projects.
Since our next Reading Room event will be hosted at the beautiful Café Tiergarten (date and details here), we thought it was the perfect moment to introduce Leonie as one of our fellow readers.
Welcome to Reading Room, Leonie!
What are you currently reading, or which books are on your bedside table?
Leonie Herweg: I’m currently finishing Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann, which sits on a slightly chaotic stack on my bedside table alongside Annie Ernaux & Marc Marie’s The Use of Photography, George Perec’s Life A User’s Manual, Klaus Nomi’s biography and a book on the architecture of churches.
What inspired you to start GROTTO?
Leonie: Making up my own rules of the game.
Is there a book (or a few books) that has stayed with you for a long time or inspired your curatorial work?
Leonie: Lee Lozano’s notebooks from 1967-70, in facsimile form, which release an almost physical sensation of exhilaration and somehow urgency every time I pick them up to read a few pages. She was also extremely funny. Kirsty Bell’s The Undercurrents for she is able to write about Berlin and the one-ness experience of our lives as a universally shared thread that connects us all. I would have probably already moved away a long time ago, if it weren’t for that book. Also everything that Ghislaine Leung says and writes.
“It’s like this one famous painting by Sigmar Polke from 1969, which is white with only the right top corner painted black. It’s titled ‘Höhere Wesen befahlen: rechte obere Ecke schwarz malen!’ (eng. Higher Beings Commanded: Paint the Upper Right Corner Black!) And that’s pretty much how I feel about the spaces I create: I just have to do it.”
GROTTO is more than an exhibition space. Since the beginning, readings, book launches, and even a yearly art book fair (GROTTO BOOKS) are as much part of your programming as putting on shows with artists. What role do spaces like this play for you, especially in times of change or uncertainty?
Leonie: It’s like this one famous painting by Sigmar Polke from 1969, which is white with only the right top corner painted black. It’s titled “Höhere Wesen befahlen: rechte obere Ecke schwarz malen!” (eng. Higher Beings Commanded: Paint the Upper Right Corner Black!) And that’s pretty much how I feel about the spaces I create: I just have to do it.
If you could recommend just one book for everyone to read, which would it be?
Leonie: A book on the social life of animals by biologist and philosopher Cord Riechelmann with photographs by Rosemarie Trockel called Leichtes Unbehagen – Von Menschen und anderen Tieren. I love animals!
What’s your favourite place to read? Can you sometimes be spotted reading at Café Tiergarten? :)
Leonie: Never at Café Tiergarten (unfortunately!). I love the London tube and the sofa at my grandparents.
We can’t wait for our Reading Room session in May at the beautiful Café Tiergarten! <3 Thanks so much for joining us and sharing your inspiring thoughts and book tips, dear Leonie!
— Deniz