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 4th session on 19/02/2026, we read: Maurice Blanchot, The Infinite Conversation (excerpts), 1969/1993

As the exhibition programme at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg focuses on archiving and gathering, Bryony Dawson chose two chapters from Maurice Blanchot’s The Infinite Conversation to think about plurality of voices, encounters with difference, and how interruptions can make space for new understanding.

In the first of these two chapters, Blanchot proposes that silence and interruption are some of conversation’s most important forms, and that discontinuity is essential since it promises exchange. Even in its most straightforward form, he argues, conversation must ‘always fragment itself by changing protagonists,’ with an ‘interruption for the sake of understanding, understanding in order to speak’.

In the second chapter, Blanchot emphasises the distinction between “I” and “other” in conversation, insisting that their distance shouldn’t be assimilated or reduced. Rejecting a model of speech in which two opposing sides seek unity and consensus, Blanchot favours a “non-dialectical” relationship that acknowledges multiplicity, difference and irreducibility.


The outreach programme at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V. is made possible thanks to the kind support of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, the VGH Foundation, and the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg.

BRYONY DAWSON is a writer, curator, and sometimes-artist based between Berlin and Vienna. She runs the reading group Non-Productive Readers, as well as the reading series Tribute and screening/performance series Multiplex. Her creative and critical writing has been featured in Frieze, émergent magazine, Motor Dance Journal, Common Pink, Corridor8, Sore, and on Montez Press Radio. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

MAURICE BLANCHOT was a French novelist, philosopher and literary theorist. His work explored concepts of identity, community and death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense. His writing had significant influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. Alongside The Infinite Conversation (1969/1993), important publications include: Death Sentence (1948/1978), Thomas the Obscure (1950/1973), The Space of Literature (1955/1982), and The Writing of the Disaster (1980/1986).