This is a limited edition photo book in 200 copies with images by Peter Wiklund and texts from poems by the Swedish writer Willy Granqvist (b. 1948, d. 1985).
The Swedish word Ängelen means “the angel” (but with an elderly spelling).
Each book is numbered and signed, and has a small unique, handmade cyanotype on the cover.
Fail Like Fire is a carefully selected collection of twenty poems, written over the past HOWEVER MANY years, from Penny Goring’s intensely personal poetry archive.
Through the work on a collective publication, differently located artists (Marseille and Frankfurt) meet within the realm of literary expression. The writing of prosaic, autofictional/autobiographic texts, as well as poems with the emphasis of the localization of one’s own identity, feministic and general political themes, is the starting point of the planned publication.
This writing, that is part of their whole artistic practice, is what connects the four participating artists. Hereby text seems to be a meaningful media of connection. In the context of the release of the publication, two readings have taken place at Voiture 14 in Marseilles and at saasfee*pavillon in Frankfurt am Main between March and June 2023.
The Publication itself, as well as the readings, aspire to transport the intimate, to share something private, and through that question a private and political reality. The interdisciplinary practice of the participating artists, that combine in performance, sculpture, photography, social artistic practice in public spaces, music-production and more, will show not only in the format of the readings but also in the publication itself. The publication is no classical book, but rather a collection, a personal archive of text, memory and emotion (anger, lust, grief, sorrow, empathy and tenderness).
The goal of the project is, to balance (geographic) distance, through the confrontation with similar themes from different perspectives. The reality of life stays different, but a speaking tube appears, a connecting aspect – through the constant, careful perceiving of one’s own reality and the digesting through the writing process.
