We are thrilled to announce the Editor Wannabes’ Club, a public programme series developed in collaboration with Qilu Criticism (歧路批评). The series reflects on – and works through – the editorial practices that at once shape and become shaped by contemporary art discourse.
Taking Qilu Criticism’s first five-year journey as a point of departure, the series approaches the editorial as both a professional process of textual production and a relational practice: creating, publishing, reading, translating, supporting, and caring for the writing and thoughts of others. At its core is a question recurring in Qilu Criticism’s work: what sustains editorial practice? Led by Qilu, the two workshops in the series focus on fatigue, dissatisfaction, and doubt as three key feelings that pervade the everyday experience of undertaking editorial work, yet remain rarely brought up in discussion about editing. Via an open call, the first workshop will gather participants from diverse levels of experience, while the second closed-door workshop will convene a smaller group of experienced editors in the field for focused exchange. The work-in-progress lexicon developed in the first workshop will contribute to and open new ground for discussion in the second.
The title 'Editor Wannabes' playfully acknowledges the curiosity, experimentation, and uncertainties shared by anyone engaging in editorial work. The Editor Wannabes’ Club invites participants to explore and examine the textures, conditions, and possibilities of editing and being edited through the collective development of a lexicon about editorial practice. Why and how does one become an editor? Where does editorial work take place within contemporary art? How does it intersect with artistic, curatorial, and discursive practices? How can we foreground editorial labour that largely remains unseen despite its central role in the production of artistic discourses?
Following the workshops, Qilu and participants will continue to develop A Lexicon for Editor Wannabes through ongoing collaboration. Bringing together situated and collective knowledge, the lexicon will be shared publicly as a living offering that brings editorial practice into focus and opens space for its continued negotiation across the arts and cultural field.