While reading together is the foundation of any book club, arpentage (a French collective reading practice) transforms this idea into a collaborative and creative experience. Each participant reads only a fragment of the text; its broader context emerges later, through collective discussion. Meaning is assembled gradually, as individual impressions and interpretations are shared. In this way, literature is read – and re-read – together, through a multiplicity of perspectives.

Introduced by Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellow Lily Abichahine at the Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus, this series of arpentage sessions will be led by the artist herself. Across three meetings, participants will experience the process of disassembling, reading, and reassembling a major literary work. The sessions will take place at 6 pm on February 16 at Schloss Solitude, and on March 2 at the Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus.

The first session will focus on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time – a seminal text on race, religion, and identity in America. In light of today’s political climate, particularly in the United States, Baldwin’s reflections feel as urgent and resonant as ever. We warmly invite you to join this collective reading experience.

The Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus is an institution dedicated to contemporary literature, fostering encounters between writers, texts, and audiences through readings, discussions, and experimental formats.

Lily Abichahine is an artist and researcher whose work explores the relationship between art and law. A PhD candidate at Paris VIII University, her research focuses on fiction in legal and artistic representations, with particular attention to tribunals as performative spaces. Currently based in Stuttgart, she seeks to create situations of dialogue – opening spaces where discussion can unfold – and to translate complex legal knowledge into accessible forms. Drawing on regulations and their anthropology, her work reflects on heritage and collective memory, moving fluidly between visual arts (installations and video) and performance (monologues and staged assemblies).