The Showroom is pleased to present an ambitious new commission by Berlin-based Australian artist Gerry Bibby. After his project at Frieze Art Fair in 2013, this will be the artist’s first solo presentation in a public space in the UK.

The Showroom has opened its doors for Bibby to take up ‘residence’ in the lead up to and during his exhibition. Venturing beyond the scope of a typical artist commission, Bibby will go behind the scenes, interrogating the organisation and commission itself, by assuming a position that shifts the traditional artist/institution dynamic. From here he will explore both the possibilities and limitations of such a dynamic and probe the idiosyncrasies of the organisation’s apparatuses – rendering them as potential creative material.

In particular, his project will focus on The Showroom’s heating system, the ebb and flow of which provides warmth and a generative tissue throughout the building and the community within it. Bleeding and dismantling radiators, draining the system and investigating possible prosthetic measures such as double-glazing, Bibby’s interventions will explore social modes of production, shifts in function, and forms of intimacy, intrusion and estrangement, all of which he will unearth during this process.

Bibby will edit his manuscript during the exhibition, a parallel (if not conflicting) process that will continually inform the development of the show. He will return to launch the final publication produced by If I Can’t Dance at the end of the year.