NON-PRODUCTIVE READERS is a reading group for informal discussions about art, cultural theory and experimental writing. Initiated by BRYONY DAWSON in 2022 and named after Josef Strau's essay The Non-Productive Attitude, the group loosely explores modes of passivity, ambivalence, failure and refusal as vital aspects of creative and institutional practice. Past readings have included texts by Lisa Robertson, Jean Genet, Tiqqun, Clarice Lispector, Katrina Palmer, Jalal Toufic, Gertrude Stein and Seth Price.

The reading group takes place in the pauses between exhibitions. The selected texts will respond to the experiences and insights of the previous exhibition and thematically introduce the following project.

Discussions will be mainly in English, with whisper translation and German text versions available. No prior knowledge or background in art or cultural theory is required—only a motivation to read and think with others.

Each session is dedicated to a different text, so there is no pressure to commit to the whole series. Lurking listeners are always welcome.

To receive the reading material, please register at: readinggroup@halle-fuer-kunst.de

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In the 2nd session on 24/07/2025 we read:
Andrea Fraser, Why Does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry?, 2005

This essay is a conflicted love letter—not only to the minimalist works of Fred Sandback, but also to the grand galleries of prominent art institutions. Originally delivered as a speech, the essay was punctuated by Fraser repeatedly breaking into tears. Moved by a powerful sense of vulnerability, absence and loss triggered by Sandback’s barely-there installations of taut yarn and wire, she suggests that this work touches on the boundaries of self and other. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of holding, loss and the development of psychological patterns in early childhood, Fraser’s essay grapples with her complex feelings towards institutional space and its matrices of power, dependence and exclusivity. 

A detail I find particularly affecting is Fraser’s weeping in response to the shabby, time-worn picture frames in the Louvre. She writes: “The waitress in the cafe on the museum’s second floor, where I took refuge behind a massive marble column, sobbing, had obviously seen this before. She sat me down and administered Vienna’s other famous cure: a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of Sacher torte. She wouldn’t let me pay.”



The annual programme at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V. is funded by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband, and Hansestadt Lüneburg.

BRYONY DAWSON is an artist, writer and curator living in Berlin. Her writing has been published in Frieze, émergent magazine, Motor Dance Journal, Corridor8 and Sore. She currently runs the reading group 'Non-Productive Readers', and 'Multiplex', an event series for screenings, performances and readings, co-curated with Zach Hart.

ANDREA FRASER (*1965) is a performance artist, mainly known for her work in the field of institutional critique. Combining the site-specific and research-based approaches of conceptualism with feminist investigations of subjectivity and desire, she has examined the financial, social, and affective economies of cultural organisations. In a humorous and often satirical tone, her practice explores the motivations driving artists, collectors, art dealers, corporate sponsors, museum trustees, and museum visitors from the pursuit of prestige to that of financial investment, sexual fantasy and self-realisation. Fraser is a Professor in the Department of Art at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of the Arts and Architecture.