Live Recorded Delay: An Archive of “Il Tempo del Postino”

Introduction by M/M (Paris)
Contributions by Hans Ulrich Obrist (edited by Charles Arsène-Henry), Philippe Parreno, Nancy Spector

Co-organized by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno as a group exhibition that would occupy time rather than space, “Il Tempo del Postino” usurped the durational dimension of theater by presenting time-based art on the stage of the Manchester Opera House (July 12 – 14, 2007). The book Live Recorded Delay constitutes the only documentation of this legendary project. Entirely conceived by the graphic design team M/M (Paris), it is both a personal archive and an open-ended score for future restagings of the event.

With some 140 photographs of the rehearsals, eleven drawn portraits of the participating artists as well as contributions by Nancy Spector, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Philippe Parreno, the book traces the making of the show and renders a distinctive portrait of a heterogenous but loosely affiliated group. Among the artists featured are Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler, Tacita Dean, Trisha Donnelly, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Live Recorded Delay comes in a luxurious, limited-edition box and is a part of M/M’s installation at theanyspacewhatever exhibition at the Guggenheim New York, October 24, 2008 – January 7, 2009.