Pieterjan Ginckels

S.P.A.M. Office looks like a traditional modernist office setting; uniform office furniture made up of cheap, low quality – spam – materials, and a coffee machine and all its obligatory accessories being present. Nylon tie-wraps are holding the mocha colored, cheap structural furniture panels together, being an ultimate representation of the volatility of spam. The spam officers – hired by the exhibiting organization – check e-mails, detect spam, print and prepare for a proofread and finally archive the letters. They become performers, wearing the uniform and logo of the ‘firm’, taking turns in a monotonous disarmament process to which spam is subjected. Of course this company mainly develops nonsensical operations, poetically supported by the decorum of bureaucracy. The messages are stripped of their corrupt, commercial deployment.

The release of this book coincides with the performance ‘S.P.A.M OFFICE’ of Pieterjan Ginckels organized by Be-Part Center for Contemporary Art, Waregem, Belgium, (May 7th till May 15th 2011). Published in collaboration with Be-Part, Waregem (B).