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At a time when we are reading less and finding it increasingly difficult to sustain our concentration, writer and artist Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić invites us to embrace a simple gesture that today almost takes on the character of an act of resistance: to sit down, turn off our phones, and read, as announced on the official website of Konstepidemin Cultural Centre in Gothenburg.

As part of Konstepidemin fredag (Epidemifredag), the Silent Reading Workshop will take place this Friday in Guest Studio 3. The workshop requires no preparation, introduction, discussion, or prior knowledge. All you need to do is bring a book — your own book, an artist’s book, or a favourite book by another author, in any language — find a place and start reading.

From 7:00 to 7:30 pm, Studio 3 will become a temporary public space dedicated to reading, silence and concentration. Instead of conversation, exchanging opinions or the usual dynamics of an art event, participants will spend half an hour together, each immersed in their own book. It is a space for being together without the need to communicate.

This simple gesture may be more significant today than it first appears. Reading, particularly the kind that requires time and sustained attention, is increasingly difficult to fit into everyday life, surrounded as we are by screens, notifications, short-form content, and constant interruptions. Silent Reading Workshop therefore does not seek to offer yet another piece of content to consume. On the contrary, it creates a space in which we can, for a moment, consume nothing at all.

Turn off the phone. Sit down. Open a book. Stay with the text.

In this sense, Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić’s workshop can also be understood as a kind of artistic situation: reading moves from the private sphere into a public space, while silence becomes a shared experience. Participants do not need to talk about what they are reading, explain their reading habits, or present their books to others. Everyone keeps their own text, their own rhythm and their own space of attention.

A conversation about the books participants have brought, reading habits, and the place of reading in contemporary art may follow the workshop, but it is entirely optional. The basic idea remains simple: to spend half an hour together in silence, reading.

Silent Reading Workshop by Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić invites visitors to slow down, put their phones aside, and join a shared reading experience.

More information is available on the Konstepidemin Cultural Centre website

ENG Silent Reading Workshop ‹ Konstepidemin