Filler Verlag is an independent platform for the book and for the discourse that emerges from it. “Publishing” is not understood as an act of distribution, but as an act of sharing. The focus is on collective development and the promotion of discourse. With this experimental approach, Filler thinks the book further: How can it remain relevant as a medium in an increasingly digital and fast-moving world? What role do independent publishers play in an age dominated by mass production and standardization?

These questions gave rise to Big Hat Big Problems - a series of gatherings. In both a physical and metaphorical sense, Big Hat Big Problems is a place of constant negotiation and exchange, but also of dwelling. There are references to literary salons in the structure. Readings, conversations, thick carpets, cozy armchairs and dimmed lights. One decisive difference: the guest list is not exclusive.

Big Hat Big Problems is an invitation to see the book not as the first step towards publication, as is usually the case, but as a means of creating publics. Filler makes use of these publics, as each meeting is intended to produce and record additions from the contributors, as well as ideas or open questions from the participants. These are intended to continue the initial script and thus the content of the book. As an antithesis to the traditional exhibition catalog that concludes a project, the catalog for Big Hat Big Problems is expanded through each event. It is modular, each meeting is a chapter, the program is not thematically structured, the focus is on ephemeral aspects.

The focus on the single evening - that everything can only be heard or seen once - guides the curation. The majority of the contributions consist of read texts, even the recording of a audio play is only played once. The street in front of the exhibition space is covered by a large chalk drawing. The salon opens up; publishes itself. Basically, this is already art in public space, but it's gone again the next day. The program has no schedule, only a sequence, and in the course of the evening there are chance encounters and unplanned relationships between the texts. And within the audience, too, that à la Salon discusses what they have experienced in the breaks between the performances. Big Hat Big Problems wants to show that every movement and every understanding is only possible in relation to others and their words - including the understanding of one's own position, one's own working methods and their effect. Art that touches us or something is always created in dialog with the ideas of others.
There is room for doubt, for unfinished thoughts and a glass in between. There are no messages to decipher - only the invitation to accept ambiguity.

The documentation is intentionally reduced to create an open space for both performers and visitors.