It's hard to stop beginning

The gallery presents an exhibition by Robin Waart.
From September 17 until October 29 2010.
Opening Friday September 17, 7pm - 9pm. Location: Donkere Spaarne 32, Haarlem.



Part one. The first in a series of works looking into what beginning (and ending) means – Part one is a collection of pages from English books and (mostly) novels, featuring only the words Part one/Part I/Part etc.

We start things all the time. A train of thought, conversations, love affairs. Often we don’t even know how and when until it has already happened.
In fact ‘to start something’ describes much more of a process than just an onset.
This is what Part one is about. About collecting and not being able to track down where and when a collection starts, about failing to predict the moment it will stop. Because there is no such thing as completeness, because collecting always involves repetition. And because if you keep on repeating something, tracing it back to its origin becomes more and more difficult.
The publication is printed in a limited edition of 101 numbered copies, each reproducing 101 Part ones. It is a collection of pages from English books and (mostly) novels, featuring only the words Part one / Part 1. Each book contains one of the yellowed or faded originals, implying the process of collecting has to start all over again. Not just because a collection is never complete – just because it’s hard, maybe impossible, to stop beginning.
(quotations, Robin Waart, 2010)

The exhibition 'It's hard to stop beginning' is also part of Madness & Arts Festival 2010 which after Toronto (2003) and Münster (2006) will be taking place in Haarlem from 24 September through 3 October, 2010.