"It is in the nature of the secret that it should be shared. In fact, the main function of the secret is to define the codes that regulate how and by whom it can be shared. The distinction between those who have the right to share it and those who don't, the rightfully initiated and illegitimate impostors is built into the logic of the secret.

To know a secret therefore does not mean to be informed about its content – secrets have very little in common with information – rather, it implies that you have come to know what it means to know the secret. This is to say that you have to become initiated into the technique of acquiring the knowledge of the secret and each secret requires a particular technique of knowing it. In effect, the knowledge of secrets is by definition technical, pragmatic and performative. It is based on the practical proficiency in the coded languages used to share secrets, the many clandestine signs, gestures and innuendos by means of which you make it understood to others that you are in the know and test them whether they are, too.

For if they can read the signs - and show you that they do by responding to your gestures with the appropriate responses - they thereby identify themselves as members of the community founded on the very practices of sharing secrets you currently perform. If they can't, however, they immediately disqualify themselves as uninitiated into the intimate symbolic bond created by the mutual knowledge of the secret." (Jan Verwoert)

Published in collaboration with Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam

With contributions by 60 artists, authors and designers