Developed by Çiğdem Mirol, Bookperformance enacts “holding space for life’s unfolding authorship” through multilingual, multimodal manifestations in the wor-l-d across academic, research, artistic, and public contexts as a living practice-theory of co-authoring. Below is a selection of its manifestations that trace its conceptual trajectory.
Bookperformance: Live-Exhibitions (since 2021) publicly manifest the syneasthetic alphabet of sonic bodies as a shared field of embodied perception, where Mirol individually makes visible the invisible resonances through which space itself becomes the co-author:
2026 1111 Hz by Life. Good Vibes Festival. Ghent.
2025 Time Lapse by Ludovico Einaudi. Private Domain. Windsor.
2024 Blue Train by John Coltrane. Bookperformance Studio. Brussels.
2023 Liebestraum by Franz Liszt. De Krook. Ghent.
2023 A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. Steigenberger Wiltcher's. Brussels.
2022 Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. Bookperformance Studio. Brussels.
2021 Gymnopédies by Erik Satie. BiLY Art Walk. Brussels.
Bookperformance: Body & Sound & Light & Eye (Since 2014) is where Mirol explores perception as a co-creative, multisensory enaction where the body becomes a site of embodied reading and writing, and eye, sound, and light operate as relational conditions of transparent perception:
2025 Silesian Science Festival. Katowice.
2023 De Krook. Gent.
2023 OODI. Helsinki.
2022 Hošek Contemporary. Berlin.
2022 Berlin Art Week.
2021 Mestizo Arts Festival, Antwerpen.
2020 Blue Flamingo Jazz Festival. Brussels.
2019 Palais de Justice. Brussels.
2018 ArkDes. Stockholm.
2017 Grand Palais. Paris.
2017 II White Night Festival. Riga.
2017 I White Night Festival. Riga.
2017 Chat Noir. Genève.
2015 III Europalia Arts Festival. Brussels.
2015 II Europalia Arts Festival. Brussels.
2015 Performance Arts Week. Venice.
2015 I Europalia Arts Festival. Brussels.
2015 Rock Strangers. Ostende.
2014 L’Archiduc. Brussels.
2014 Jazz’n Words Festival. Leuven.
Bookperformance: Author & Reader (Since 2012) is initiated by the author and invites the reader into a material, multisensory, space-bound practice of re- and co-authoring, where reading and writing become reciprocal acts of co-authorship without digital mediation, in reciprocity with Bookperformance: Reader & Author (Since 2012), events initiated by the reader and inviting the author:
2023 The Science Day. Ghent.
2022 Asmara – Addis Literature Festival. Brussels.
2018 City Library. Stockholm.
2017 Salon du Livre – Palexpo. Geneva.
2017 Grob Gallery. Geneva.
2016 International Poetry Festival. Madrid.
2015 BRX FM. Brussels.
2015 Europalia Arts Festival. Brussels.
2015 fiEstival 9. Brussels.
2015 Brabant Tram Kouter. Ghent.
2015 Kunsthalle. Halle.
2013 Radio TRT FM. Ankara.
2013 Subway Performances. New York.
2013 Nassau College. New York.
2013 Tayfa Bookstore. Ankara.
2013 CerModern Museum. Ankara.
2013 Reims & Blues. Liège.
2013 Nar Arts Festival. Beringen.
2013 L'Argonne. Brussels.
2013 Reims University. Reims.
2013 Leiden University. Leiden.
2013 Sazz'n Jazz. Brussels.
2013 Sabancı University. İstanbul.
2013 Music Club. Beringen.
2013 Tayfa Kitapevi. Ankara.
2013 Radio 1, İstanbul.
2013 Sazz'n Jazz. Brussels.
2013 Grande Bibliothèque. Montréal.
2013 L'école Dachbeck. Brussels.
2013 Tanpınar Museum. İstanbul.
2013 L'Imaginaire. Brussels.
2013 Reims Poetry Festival. Reims.
2013 Başkent University. Ankara.
2013 METU. Ankara.
2013 Cafe Kafka. Ankara.
2012 Radio TRT FM. Ankara.
2012 Radyo A / Anadolu University. Eskişehir.
2012 Orta Dünya Kitap Kafe. Ankara.
2012 Sazz'n Jazz. Brussels.
2012 De Centrale. Ghent.
2012 Gold FM. Brussels.
2012 PICKWICK's. Vienna.
2012 Kanguru Art Center.İzmir.
“Bookperformance Manifest” (since 11.11.2011), since its inception, is enacted as a multilingual annual manifestation each 11 November in public space, articulating its texts and actions by “Holding Life Unfolding”:
2025 Galata Tower. Istanbul.
2024 Archive der Avangarten (ADA). Dresden.
2023 Skeppsholmen. Stockholm.
2022 Part-Dieu Train Station. Lyon.
2021 Triennial. Bruges.
2020 Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Brussels.
2019 MUMOK. Wien.
2018 CAM. Lisboa.
2017 MAMCO. Geneva.
2016 Kunsthall Bergen. Bergen.
2015 Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam
2014 MACRO. Roma
2013 Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid.
2012 Bilkent University. Ankara.
2011 Le Cygne. Brussels
Bookperformance practice-theory (since 2011) emerged through Çiğdem Mirol’s MA, and developed through PhD research at KASK & UGent as a practice-theory of co-authorship and knowledge-making across artistic, philosophical, and relational contexts, and is shared through academic presentations such as “Being in the Wor-l-d,” “Transparent Desire in Wor-l-d,” and “The Best of All Possible Wor-l-ds” as a responsive field of ongoing articulation and evolution:
2025 PhD Research Return. (co-promoted through UGent & KASK), Gent.
2025 History of Emotions Summer School, Groningen.
2024 Annual Symposium: Literature and Materiality (VAL), Leuven.
2024 manifestoNOW! Conference Archive der Avantgarden (ADA). Dresden.
2024 Eco-Poetics and Environmental Artivism (LABRC). London.
2024 Symposium on Transmitting the Intangible (RDM). Oslo.
2024 Annual Conference History, Authorship, Reading, Publishing (SHARP). Reading.
2024 Conference: The Politics of Self-Reflexivity (VUB). Brussel.
2024 Annual Meeting (ACLA). Montréal, 2024.
2015 PhD Research Interval [Reorientation towards the source].
2014 Annual Convention (NeMLA). Pennsylvania.
2013 Annual Conference (ALA). Boston.
2013 Annual Meeting (ACLA). Toronto.
2013 Annual Convention (NeMLA). Boston.
2024 Conference: Les mots entre pouvoir et puissance (URCA). Reims.
2012 Reconfiguring Authorship: International Conference (UGent). Gent.
2012 PhD Research Start (UGent). Gent.
2011 MA Research (Bilkent). Ankara.
2011 Annual Meeting (ACLA). Vancouver.
Bookperformance Manuscript Research (since 2011) explores manuscript collections, archives, and special collections worldwide as living sites of knowledge-making, attending to writing as performance across drafts, notes, letters, scores, and annotations, while simultaneously generating new manuscript traces through Bookperformance enactments that extend the archival field in the present:
2025 National Library of Ireland: James Joyce manuscripts. Dublin.
2024 Klassik Stiftung Weimar: Friedrich Nietzsche manuscripts. Weimar.
2024 Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading: Beckett manuscripts. Reading.
2024 Goethe and Schiller Archive, Klassik Stiftung Weimar: Goethe manuscripts. Weimar.
2024 McGill University Library: Leonard Cohen manuscripts. Montréal.
2023 National Library of China: Du Fu: manuscript-to-print traditions. Beijing.
2023 Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies: Old Norse–Saga manuscripts. Reykjavík.
2022 Royal Conservatory / Musical Instruments Museum (MIM): Harpsichord collections. Brussels.
2020 University of Sussex, Special Collections: Virginia Woolf manuscripts. Brighton.
2019 Royal Library of Turin: Leonardo da Vinci, manuscripts. Turin.
2018 The Morgan Library & Museum: Einstein manuscripts, Morgan Bible. New York.
2018 Biblioteca Nacional de España: Don Quixote editions. Madrid.
2017 Konya Manuscript Library: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī manuscripts. Konya,
2016 Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Gertrude Stein manuscripts. New Haven.
2016 Trinity College Dublin Library Medieval Irish manuscripts (monastic texts and illuminated codices). Dublin
2016 National Library of Ireland Early Modern Irish manuscripts (vernacular writing and historical records). Dublin
2016 Royal Irish Academy Library Irish scholarly manuscripts (antiquarian studies and linguistic collections). Dublin
2015 IMEC: Jacques Derrida manuscripts. Caen.
2014 UC Special Collections: Jacques Derrida manuscripts. Irvine.
2014 Topkapı Palace Museum Library: Early Qur'an manuscript traditions. Istanbul, Türkiye.
2013 New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center: John Coltrane archival collections. New York,
2013 British Library: Medieval Hebrew manuscripts and Masoretic biblical traditions. London.
2012 State Museum of Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky Museum: Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky manuscripts. Moscow.
2012 Dār al-Kutub: Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic manuscripts (textual traditions). Cairo.
2012 Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Arabic manuscripts (archival heritage). Alexandria.
2012 Al-Azhar University: Arabic and Islamic manuscripts (theological and juridical texts). Cairo.
2011 National Library of Greece: Ancient Greek manuscripts (textual transmission and historical codices). Athens.