Stijn Van Dorpe (b. 1970) got the idea for the work ‘A Bookcase’ while assembling three bookcases at home and at the same time listening to music. He found it interesting that the music had no influence on the ultimate form of the assembled bookcase. With this premise established, he invited students of a vocational school for woodworking to take part in a performance during a residency at Hotel Charleroi. Van Dorpe asked them to assemble a bookcase in an old shopping arcade in Charleroi, while a rap group performed alongside them. The book launch of ‘A Bookcase’ took place at site Tondelier in Ghent – a former box club – with a talk between Stijn Van Dorpe, Nikolaas Demoen and Sarah Késenne, who wrote the text for the book. After the talk, the Charleroi rappers/hiphoppers had a concert.
