Metronome was an artists' and writers' organ founded by Clémentine Deliss, which included Metronome magazine (1996–2007) and a set of paperback novels from Metronome Press (2005). Metronome was a non-profit organisation that acted as alternative art publishing, without a fixed editorial team or a fixed location. Artists, writers and curators collaborated to produce printed projects mixing art and fiction.
Contents
Metronome magazine
As a critical alternative to conventional art publishing, Metronome generated new works by artists and writers with the intention of creating new circuits of art scenes in different locations. It created an international neighbourhood between artists and writers, stimulating a discussion on the art backstage that could not take place in the public space as an exhibition. For this reason, it was conceived as a creative tangent to an exhibition and an instrument for research.
"I might have been inspired by Deliss's mode of bringing people around a table and create an atmosphere of sincere interest for each other; hers was an emotionally bonding project." (Ursula Biemann, artist and curator)
Each magazine issue was the result of a research made in a number of different cities and locations of the world including Dakar, London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Basel, Frankfurt, Vienna and others, with a new group of collaborators in each place. The last two issues were linked to "Future Academy", a research initiative that was active in the UK, Senegal, India, US, Australia and Japan.
Issues
This was a pilot issue of Metronome printed in Senegal that set the production of all future issues.
It included interviews with Catherine David and Paul Virilio, visual and text-based conversations between Dakar and London.
Artists & Writers: Autograph; Joshua Compston; Catherine David; Clémentine Deliss; Joy Gregory; Elizabeth Harney; Laboratoire Agit'Art; Rut Blees Luxemburg; Issa Samb; Penny Siopis; Djibril Sy; El Sy; Paul Virilio.
Artists & Writers: Bili Bidjocka; Guy Brett; Ery Camara; Andrew Cross; Clémentine Deliss; Tracey Emin; Carl Freedman; Tom Gidley; Edouard Glissant; Susan Hiller; Gary Hume; Jaki Irvine; Greg James; Atta Kwami; Langlands & Bell; Zoe Leonard; Rut Blees Luxemburg; Fred Mann; Cathy de Monchaux; Michelle Naismith; Alistair Raphael; Issa Samb; Djibril Sy; Mark Aerial Waller.
Published in August 1997, for documenta X.
Artists & Writers: Franz Ackermann; Gamal Al-Ghitani; Andrea & Philippe; May Ayim; Sabeth Buchmann; Matthew Collings; Clémentine Deliss; Nina Fischer & Maroan El Sani; Durs Grünbein; Abdoulaye Guissé; Judith Hopf; Rebecca Horn; Johannes Kahrs; Ulrike Kuschel; Via Lewandowsky; Mohamed Magani; Rémy Markowitsch; Jakob Mattner; Wairimu Mwangi Thamaini; Carsten Nicolai; Olaf Nicolai; Anatoli Shuravlev; Julian Stallabrass; Annelies Strba; Frank Thiel; Mamadou Touré dit Béhan; Gavin Turk; Emmett Williams; Slavoj Zizek.
Tempolabor, A Libertine Laboratory?
Artists & Writers: Rasna Bhushan; Ursula Biemann; Peter Brandlmayr; Clémentine Deliss; Marianne Eigenheer; Charles Esche; Ewa Esterhazy; Jean-Paul Felley; Izeta Gradevic; Eric Hattan; Rummana Hussain; Olivier Kaeser; Birgit Kempker; Jörg Lenzlinger; Renée Levi; Via Lewandowsky; Heinrich Lüber; Muda Mathis; Claudia & Julia Müller; Marianne Müller; Tim Neuger; Olaf Nicolai; Peter Pakesch; Dan Peterman; Maria & Michelangelo Pistoletto; Stephan Prina; Martin Prinzhorn; Progetto Arte; Tobias Rehberger; Leila Sadeghee; Issa Samb; Nicolaus Schafhausen; Andrew Shields; Kan-Si; Martina Siegwolf; Gerda Steiner; Reinhard Storz; Peter Suter; Wawrzyniec Tokarski; Annette Ungar; Cyril Verrier; Nebojsa Vilic; Sus Zwick.
Metronome Press
Metronome Press was a not-for-profit collective run by Clémentine Deliss and Thomas Boutoux in Paris during 2005–2007. It was founded as an extension of Metronome No. 9, based on the international history of avant-garde publishing in Paris and its productive intersection between art and literature.
It started from the intuition of Maurice Girodias, the founder of Olympia Press, to highlight the cultural internationalism of Paris and turn it into a centre for global arts distribution. For this reason, all the books were published in English.
Metronome Press published four novels in the shape of a paperback series, three by living visual artists and one reprint from 1933.
The paperback series (2005):
Fat Mountain Scenes by Phyllis Kiehl
Stunning Lofts by Tom Gidley
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Young and Evil [1933] by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler