Le Grand K

20th of May
Book Launch with Performances and Readings

With work by: Julia Wolf  /  Alice Bucknell  /  Arieh Frosh  /  Marijn Ottenhof  /  John Henry Newton  /  The Idle Institute  /  Johanna Flato  /  Demelza Toy Toy & Annie Pender  /  Name Surname  /  Károly Tendl  /  Fiona Glen  /  Flo Ray  /  Samuel Capps  /  Dario Srbic  /  Farvash  /  Cameron Randall  /  Luca George & Déas McMorrow  /  Col Self  /  Andrea Khôra  /  Xenia Busalova  /  Mathilde Heu  /  Tatjana Vinona Joneska  /  Allan Gardner  /  Judith Hagan  /  Léonie Sinden  /  Nikolai  /  Dasha Loyko

Edited by: Dasha Loyko  /  Károly Tendl  /  Andrea Khôra

Identity design by Farvash

Introduction by Jeremy Millar


Farewell material! Join our measured gesture of good-bye. Le Grand K is an anthology, an obituary, a response by artists and writers to the dematerialisation of the kilogram and other measurement units, in poetry, prose, images, scripts, and possible worlds.

On the 20th of May, 2019, on what is known as World Metrology Day, The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) redefine the value of several measurement units. The most significant change occurs in the redefinition of the kilogram. The physical standard, a cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy held in the BIPM vault in Paris, and kept under constant conditions since 1889, becomes a relic destined for a museum shelf. The Prototype of the Kilogram, a.k.a. Le Grand K, is replaced with a set of instructions for measuring 1 kg exactly, using electric current and the value of the Planck constant.

On Monday, the 20th of May, 2019, we depart for a reality that is perpetually performed, where inert definitions lose their grasp and are afloat among rocks, trees, chairs, ants, rooms, plastic, and hearts.



This publication has been made possible with support from the Royal College of Art.