Publishing Clearing House was an four-month long initiative by the group Temporary Services (Chicago/Copenhagen). They made a temporary, fully functioning print shop in the context of “A Proximity of Consciousness: Art & Social Action,” a group exhibition, that looked at the historical context for socially engaged art in the city going back to the late 1800s. Temporary Services–with Kione Kochi, Kristian Johansson, and Leah Mackin–worked with invited collaborators to produce 11 new booklets during the short life of the print shop.

In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a commitment is made for a transaction until it is settled. In Publishing Clearing House, clearing denoted all activities from the time a commitment to an author is made, until the publication is designed, printed, stapled, folded and distributed. Making a clearing is also about creating a space for meeting and making processes visible, open and transparent.

Brett Bloom from Temporary Services, will make cocktails and talk about the initiative and the publications that were made during PCH. Topics range from notions of time in prison, an essay against competition in artistic relationships, coping with gun violence in communities in the city, race riots from 1919, being an artist and parent and social and economic barriers people encounter, and more.