[gallery]
In the era of intimate relationship to objects and ownership, the on-going project ‘Add to my Library’, reflects linear processes of collective narratives into an open active space. Walter Benjamin’s writing ‘Unpacking my library’ where traditional processes of collection are deployed inspires this. It is a ‘living’ library that juxtaposes notions of ‘divine’ teaching with Internet coded language.
In ‘Add to my Library’ Mitrentse attempts to confront the viewer with an array of wondrous and humorous meditations on materiality through visual transmissions from banal to the monumental. Pages from her antique book collection have been removed from their covers and meticulously reorganized and rebound as many, now transformed into objects that defy their original form. The coverless books are folded together to create an intrinsically infinite organic structure that begins to approach an architectural Floor plan or a pattern. Expanded into organic matter, twisted or stuck together, they form small scale Podiums and other times printed editions of ‘ ‘Flags’ or Emblems’. Referencing the lost Ancient Library of Alexandria and contemporary architecture of institutions and Libraries internationally.
Mitrentse re-contextualizes books that become ‘significant objects’ not to be read, but experienced within the physical space. She addresses books as objects rather than sacred cultural artifacts and prompts viewers to explore ideas of materiality: what is the purpose of a book now days? Within an obsessive cultural context of hypertexts, virtual communication, the Internet and the commodification of the book, the work encourages viewers to consider how we now address traditional modes of relaying knowledge, such as through the use of textbooks, encyclopedia and atlases.
Having transcended any thematic organization, the unreadable self-forming sculptures have now the potential to amalgamate into an infinite number of new ‘books’, which yield a contemporary library or museum, defying conventional categorization. Yet their sculptural formulation raises questions regarding hierarchies of educational spaces and institutions.
‘’I consider this project as addressing the relationship of disembodied knowledge to embodied experience and materiality. Within the current digital market that appears to threaten our individuality, ‘ Add to my Library’ becomes the artists’ shelter, a new place of knowledge’’.
Christina Mitrentse
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE PART ‘ ADD TO MY LIBRARY Vol.II ‘
Your name and the title of your favorite book will be added to my upcoming project
ADD TO MY LIBRARY VOL II. A physical installation and an interactive website will be launched during 2011 where all participants will be credited.
Please visit www.christinamitrentse.net and send us an email with your name etc.
Projects’ update: http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/659131