The database is clearly laid out in a very image-oriented manner. The imaginary collection constitutes the point of departure for Tlön Projects’ programme which will be nomadic in nature.Ī database system has been developed by Uqbar Office to provide insight into the imaginary collection. The collection will never be complete and that isn’t a goal unto itself, but a tool for recombining the collection’s fragments to tell new stories and make viewers think. As soon as you try to get a grip on it, it runs away between your fingers, like sand. The whole thing keeps changing character. Oeuvres are enriched, works from series reunited, strangers become friends and outsiders suddenly get to join in. Works are removed from time to time, works are added. This illustrates the nature of Tlön Projects’ fabulous collection. Time and time again, entirely new texts and images are combined in new ways. Once closed, then re-opened not a single paragraph, illustration or chapter can be re-found ever again. The pages are numbered in accordance with an unfathomable system that keeps changing. In the short story The book of sand ( El libro de arena, 1975) by Jorge Luis Borges a man comes to possess a very unusual book. Imaginary because Tlön Projects can present the works, yet does not own them and the collection’s composition – collated as it is from international collections – solely exists within Tlön Projects. Works have been carefully selected to become part of a Tlön Projects compiled, imaginary collection. In recent years we have conducted field research and started cataloguing these artworks. Tlön Projects’ objective is to promote the visibility and mobility of these works so they are not forgotten, leading to their loss, analogous to Borges’ tale. They languish behind the scenes waiting to interact with an audience. Many of these works were shipped straight there from the artist’s studio or gallery and have not been seen since. The depots of international collectors house contemporary artworks of tremendous potential that are seldom exhibited, scarcely examined or re-assessed. In the story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940), Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1886) describes Tlön, a fictional planet where things fade away, and even disappear, as soon as they are forgotten and no longer observed. Please find more information at your local tax authorities. Donations to support Tlön Projects are tax deductible.įor residents of the Netherlands there is information on the website of the Dutch tax authorities.įor residents abroad there are similar rules regarding gifts and tax advantages. This means we are registered with the Dutch tax authorities as a Cultural Public Benefit Organisation.

Tlön Projects Foundation is a non-profit organisation granted with the Dutch cultural ANBI status.

Orbis collated