Library of No-Babel

Library of No-Babel is, instead, a monument to libraries in their human and even domestic dimension. It is a libary where all the books have been meticulously chosen, read, cried and thought over. In this project all the components of what we call a book are put together. It is about the seductive objectivity of a book – its weight, its glossy or opaque paper, the color of the cover, the murmur of its pages and their smell, the inevitable feeling of peace and enchantment that seizes you in a room full of books. And, of course, the text itself.

Library of No-Babel – it is a thousand books – or, to be more precise, a thousand paper books, that Anna Narinskaya has read and considers very important. There are tales from her childhood that she has also read to her children, books of poems, great philosophic writings, major novels, cook books and graphic novels. These are the texts that make up human life.

Aleksandr Brodsky puts them in the enchanting atmosphere of a rabbit hole where Lewis Carrol’s Alice fell (as you may probably remember, the hole was lined with books) combining it with the spirit of a mobile countryside library. Visitors can take books, flip through their pages, read them and adjust the arrangement at their own will.

For a library originates from an intimate relashionship between a person and a book. At least this is how the Library of Non-Babel arises.

Author of the art project – Aleksandr Brodsky, Curator – Anna Narinskaya, Architects – Nadya Korbut and Kirill Asse.