As part of the group exhibition Hotel Theory, curated by Sohrab Mohebbi in collaboration with Ruth Estévez, Snejanka Mihaylova will present her new book Acoustic Thought, which was published by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution in collaboration with The Last Books, alongside other publications by her. 

Acoustic Thought is a poetic exegesis of the Gospel of Thomas: an apocryphal gospel found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945, containing 114 sayings of Jesus. According to Mihaylova, the Gospel of Thomas "is a poem that listens, where the written is not simply the record of a voice but a radically different dimension of cognition that emerges as an acoustic realm in the formation of thoughts."

The book includes new texts written by Snejanka Mihaylova, ‘A Score for Six Voices’ by Lisa Holmqvist, and is illustrated with photographs by Jeff Weber made during a research period at the project space Beirut, Cairo. The English manuscript was first edited by Joe Kelleher. The work was commissioned by If I Can’t Dance as part of Edition V – Appropriation and Dedication (2013–2014).

Snejanka Mihaylova will also present a new performance in collaboration with Lisa Holmqvist as part of the exhibition on 7 November 2015 at 2pm.

Hotel Theory will see the gallery at REDCAT becomes a platform for performances, screenings, concerts, philosophical meditations, conversations and other events throughout the three-month exhibition, which explores the possibilities of theory as an art form. Over twenty artists participate with performances or performance documentation and video, audio, photographs, posters or other related ephemera that contextualize the time-based events. Borrowing its title from Wayne Koestenbaum’s book of the same name, the exhibition and series of events feature a wide range of artistic disciplines, practices and points of departure to question how art spaces contribute to theoretical debates. Read more about the exhibition on the REDCAT website.