After a guided tour in Grammars of Light, Bingen Bok will host a reading circle on Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction classic The Left Hand of Darkness (translated into Norwegian by Simen Hagerup). The reading circle will take as its starting point Ann Lislegaard’s work Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard).

Under the heading Translation as an artistic, world-building method in The Left Hand of Darkness, the reading circle will discuss the interpretive work involved in writing science fiction in conjunction with the creation of contemporary art, specifically seen through the exhibition Grammars of Light.

Ursula K. Le Guin writes in the book’s foreword: “This book is not extrapolative […] Science fiction is not predictive, but descriptive”. In other words, Le Guin does not see her novels as a prediction of futures that are or may be, but rather descriptions of something that already is. Everything we imagine is possible because in a sense there is already material there to base it on, or translate something from.

Participation costs NOK 80 (free for members of Astrup Fearnley Museet).

The circles will take place in the exhibition rooms after closing time. Both English and Norwegian versions of the book can be purchased via Bingen Bok. There is no requirement to purchase the book to participate.