These are not, with any luck, stern concrete formations of gestures that obey the well-executed necessities of a job well done.
At some point, all the hardened concrete in the world was wet.
Shifting and alternating, before it was set hard — hard little black shapes on the page.’
– Gerry Bibby, catalogue notes to the 12th Biennale de Lyon, 2013.

The new programme of commissions for Edition V – Appropriation and Dedication has commenced in the production of new works, as well as extending relationships with various components of If I Can’t Dance’s activities. At the Biennale de Lyon (12 September – 5 January 2013) and Frieze London (17 – 20 October) presentations of the ongoing work of commissioned artist Gerry Bibby will be on show.

In a re-appropriative turn, Bibby has installed himself as a shifting functionary within the ongoing ‘backstage’ operations of If I Can’t Dance. As a grounds to his writing project, Bibby has been touring with particular If I Can’t Dance programmes as a production assistant, for instance—writing through the organization’s functional layers. It is from this vantage of operational proximity that a frankenstinean cast of characters has been conjured. These composite figures will make their first public foray populating Bibby’s contribution to the forthcoming Biennale de Lyon; elaborated through reassembled emoticon punctuations, jerry-rigged silk banners, and the stature of Crowd Control Stanchions.

Gerry Bibby's presentations at the Biennale de Lyon and Frieze London will each inform a forthcoming book of fiction, to be launched as part of a final Edition V programme of commissions in late 2014. This programme will also include new works by commissioned artists Snejanka Mihalyova, Emily Roysdon and Sara van der Heide.