BOOKS: Bruno Zhu

Join us for BOOKS with artist Bruno Zhu and the Rotterdam launch of ‘Retail Verité – a novella by the group A Maior, published with San Serriffe. Based on everyday shopping encounters, the overlapping stories of ‘Retail Verité’ become gradually more surreal. For example, a high-concept fragrance boutique uses a memory of the owner’s dying grandmother to sell experiences of time-travel.

This BOOKS event is part of Show and Tell, a day of artist-led programs that celebrates Mother’s Day and the mid-way point of My Oma, our current exhibition dedicated to grandmothers as encountered in the work of 24 artists from 19 countries.

The program will feature reading from ‘Retail Verité’, which imagines a fictitious Amsterdam shopping mall. Its witty, comic and insightful commentaries are based upon ideas developed through a series of workshops hosted at San Serriffe. Through a blend of improvisation, larping and speed dating, the participants sketched characters and dialogues on-site.

“Once upon a time there was a shopping center just off Dam Square, a stone’s throw from the Madame Tussauds, not far from Primark, two streets across De Bijenkorf overshadowing the Magna Plaza, and just a couple doors down the Royal Palace in the middle of Amsterdam. It was the place where drag queen Tuu Lipa performed and Yeung sold eau de car engine oil. It was also where Mr. R looked for his human lover, where Inez became a millionaire, and where Yahoo launched its metaverse. “Welcome to the YAniverse,” greeted the Yahoo assistant…”