We are thrilled to announce the Editor Wannabes’ Club, a public programme series developed in collaboration with Qilu Criticism (歧路批评). The series reflects on – and works through – the editorial practices that at once shape and become shaped by contemporary art discourse.
Taking Qilu Criticism’s first five-year journey as a point of departure, the series approaches the editorial as both a professional process of textual production and a relational practice: creating, publishing, reading, translating, supporting, and caring for the writing and thoughts of others. At its core is a question recurring in Qilu Criticism’s work: what sustains editorial practice? Led by Qilu, the workshops in the series focus on fatigue, dissatisfaction, and doubt as three key feelings that pervade the everyday experience of undertaking editorial work, yet remain rarely brought up in discussion about editing.
The Editor Wannabes’ Club invites participants to explore and examine the textures, conditions, and possibilities of editing and being edited through the collective development of a lexicon about editorial practice. Why does one become an editor? Where does editorial work take place within contemporary art? How does it intersect with artistic, curatorial, and discursive practices? Why does editorial labour remain largely unseen despite its central role in the production of artistic discourse?
Following the workshops, Qilu and participants will continue to develop A Lexicon for Editor Wannabes through ongoing collaboration. Bringing together situated and collective knowledge, the lexicon will be shared publicly – not as a manual, but as a living offering that foregrounds editorial practice and opens space for its continued negotiation across the arts and cultural field.