I Myself Am Only A Receiving Apparatus, focuses on the performative and the human body in the work of Joachim Koester. The book, designed by Maureen Mooren, contains textual and visual contributions by Magali Arriola, Frédérique Bergholtz, Martin Germann, Veit Görner, Joachim Koester himself, Linda Norden, Marco Pasi, Kristin Schrader, and Yann Chateigné Tytelman. It consists of two volumes conceived as pendants that complement and illuminate each other.

The first volume focuses on one work by Koester, To navigate, in a genuine way, in the unknown necessitates an attitude of daring, but not one of recklessness (movements generated from the Magical Passes of Carlos Castaneda) (2009). This work was commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution within the framework of its third edition (2008–2010) that focused on the notion of masquerade. The second volume offers wider perspectives on the performative in Koester’s work and relates to his solo exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft in Hannover, for which he produced the work I Myself Am Only A Receiving Apparatus (2010) that may be seen as a companion to To Navigate (…). Koester proposed to correlate his involvements with the two commissioning organizations for this publication and connect them to a substantial presentation of his other work, notably the now seminal film installation Tarantism (2007).

The publication has been realised with the financial support of the Mondriaan Fund, European Union and the Danish Art Council and is published in the frame of Edition III – Masquerade involving the partners Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Project Arts Centre, Dublin and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.