English - 48 pp. – 31,5 x 23 cm – hardcover – full colour and b/w illustrations
Edition: 500 (special edition of 10)
Selection of images and texts from different sources: Eleni Kamma
Drawings, photographic series of gestures and scans of three-dimensional objects: Eleni Kamma
Texts: edited, re-written and invented by Orla Barry
Translation: Petra van der Jeught
Design: Salome Schmuki
Production management: Jo Frenken
Proofreading: Petra van der Jeught
Printing and binding: Fortemps, Liège, BE
Published and distributed by: Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL
ISBN: 978-90-72076-42-7
€ 21,50
Order form (at the Jan van Eyck website)

Enlever et Entretenir is an artist's book by Eleni Kamma, made in collaboration with designer Salome Schmuki and artist Orla Barry. Enlever et Entretenir develops the idea of an in-between space through the format of a book. It examines how words and images can coexist and create meaning by disrupting it; how they make sense by seemingly letting meaning collapse. The book follows the format of a 1950s photo collection book titled Entre Escaut et Meuse [Between Scheldt and Meuse], in which images and textual descriptions of plants, animals and human activities coexist. In Enlever et Entretenir, the coexistence occurs between gaps, empty spaces and various cultural descriptions and representations of nature, both historical and newly invented. In-between the visual stimuli, the rhythm of perception is interrupted by four manuals that examine the qualities of Number, Shape, Position, and Proportion and their relation to description via Linnaeus’ taxonomical theories. Kamma’s work investigates possibilities for a future architecture that activates rather than tolerates "other" positions. She explores persistently the inherent gaps and contradictions within existing cultural narratives and classification strategies. The book disrupts the canonical production of meaning within and via the synchronous appearance of words and images, researching the relation of the cliché, the banal and the stereotype to the formation of history and the fabrication of identities.