A library of living books
In Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine, a group of performers memorize a book of their choice. Together they form a collection of living books. The books are passing their time in a library ready to be consulted by a visitor. Library visitors choose a book they want to read, and the book takes its reader to a place in the library, in the cafe, or a stroll outside, while reciting its content.
The idea for this library of living books comes from the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury from 1953. It is a vision of a future where books are forbidden because they are considered as dangerous, a society where happiness is to be achieved in the absence of knowledge and critical thinking. The number 451 refers to the temperature at which book paper starts to burn. In this community, an underground movement of people who learn books by heart in order to reserve them for the future.
In the process of learning a book by heart, the reader enters the role of the author and becomes the book. No matter how much you learn something by heart, you have to keep practicing otherwise you will forget it again. The practice of memorizing is a continuous process of remembering and forgetting.
David Sedaris – A plague of Tics (english)
Margit Slaatto – Upublisert dagbok (norwegian)
Roald Dahl – Onkel Oswald (norwegian)
Torgny Lindgren – Hakkepølsa (norwegian)
Italo Calvino – If on a winter’s night a travel (english)
Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (english)
12. september kl. 12.00-18.00
14. and 15. september kl. 12.00-16.00
17. and 18. oktober kl. 12.00-18.00
19. and 20. oktober kl. 12.00-16.00
Reservation is recommended in advance:
- Tel. 906 92 256
- Email (up to 24h in advance) billett(a)blackbox.no
- At the library during the opening hours of the project. You can also just drop in!