Reading Group

In September of 1989 The Renaissance Society and Randolph Street Gallery began a Reading Group, an ongoing, informal, and free public forum for discussing topics of recent cultural interest. The group met ten times during the course of last exhibition season and discussed a wide range of articles and exhibitions of aesthetic, theoretical, and political import. The group as initiated in order to provide regular, free-form, participatory dialogue within the Chicago art community. The article to be discussed this meeting is by French writer and philosopher Georges Bataille (1879-1962), and is Part IV of The Accursed Share, entitled “Historical Data III: Industrial Society.” Bataille’s writings practically and philosphically address human cycles of material production, consumption and waste. Copies are available at The Renaissance Society and Randolph Street Gallery, 756 North Milwaukee Avenue.