The Commutual Library

2012 - 2013

The Commutual Library is an exchange-based archive, built around the life of Marvin Penner, grandfather of Matt Nishi-Broach. Each participant in the library is a contemporary member of a community that intersected with Marvin's life; participants include a labor lawyer, a Proust scholar, a number of other artists, and a New York City councilmember. The objects in the collection are acquired by exchanging gifts (which have taken the form of drawings, interactive videosculptures, and miniature cabinets of curiosity) for the participants' own artifacts that represent their own involvement in that community. Presentations of the archive have involved installation, performance (in the form of semi-pedagogical performance/lectures, referred to as “Docent Tours”), and video.