A House of Books

Matej Kren built a folly, entirely out of books, in the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna. Named "Scanner," the installation is designed to create a destabilizing individual experience.

The narrow inside space, multiplied and complicated by mirrors, evoke a sensation of sublime terror, an alteration referring to a puzzling infinity itself created to destabilize conventional spatial habits. Mirrors become an instrument to create illusion and, at the same time, to unmask it. Since the public can easily see themselves reflected in a false infinite - thus discovering the illusion - the problem becomes the latency of perception.

It is also like totally awesome. Source [Mambo via Inhabitat]

• [middleclass]

  “Think I’ll read this one one the bottom here… OH GOD.”

• [The Gunner]

  “When artists (or curators) write about their work, however great the work actually was in you mind before they started writing, it’s always a little less once you’ve read their words. And you also realise pretty quickly why they are curators (or artists) and not writers.” Discuss.

  But loving the installation.

• [The Gunner]

  And struck down by the law of be careful whose eye you poke, for “you” read “your” in my previous. Damn you hubris-imp, damn you!

• [tyger11]

  Sublime terror? More like sublime awesome! Who would be terrorized by this? I guess if you have a book phobia or something…

• [Anonymous]

  I want to see more pics!

• [turingcub]

  *drool* Agreed. This IS totally awesome.

• [Prufrock451]

  No human would stack books like this…

  • [Anonymous]

    Symmetrical book stacking. Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.

• [Teller]

  I would have thought the mirrors demystified the inchoate blending of immobile transgressions, but that’s what makes it a ball game.

  • [IsabellaClark]

    Very funny! Thanks.

• [nickodemus]

  So the reporter said, “The narrow inside space, multiplied and complicated by mirrors, evoke a sensation of sublime terror, an alteration referring to a puzzling infinity itself created to destabilize conventional spatial habits. Mirrors become an instrument to create illusion and, at the same time, to unmask it. Since the public can easily see themselves reflected in a false infinite – thus discovering the illusion – the problem becomes the latency of perception. Right?”

  So then the artist says,”I just wanted to make a house out of books.”

• [IsabellaClark]

  Those who want to see more of this, click on “Source” for some great photos of this exhibit. I found one or two potentially destabilizing, for sure.

• [Astragali]

  Hmm. I can’t afford to go to Bologna, but if I want a destabilizing individual experience, I can just go to Walmart instead. And, if so inclined, buy a pack of bologna.

• [Marshall]

  This immediately reminds me of Rachel Whiteread’s Judenplatz Holocaut Memorial in Vienna.

• [IWood]

  You ever have a destabilizing individual experience?
  
  All the time. It’s called mescaline, it’s the only way to fly.

• [Beanolini]

  Books to the ceiling,
  Books to the sky,
  My pile of books is a mile high.
  How I love them! How I need them!
  I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.

• [superOK]

  Good place to hide from conceptual sharks

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raw_Shark_Texts

• [leblanc]

  Reminds me of the House of Leaves…

• [awerich]

  I cool spectacle to behold. I can’t help but wonder playfully what the rest (if there’s more to it)of it looks like. I hope my dreams are of this tonight.

• [IanWalker]

  Hah! House of Books is a song by a great band out of southeast Michigan, the Pop Project.

  A number of mp3s for download here, including House of Books:
  http://www.suburbansprawlmusic.com/artist.php?a=The%20Pop%20Project

• [Dorkomatic]

  Mirrors? Infinity? Books? It sounds like something insprired by Jorge Luis Borges.

• [dculberson]

  Sweeeet. I don’t know about the obligatorily douchey artists statement, but the piece itself is awesome. I totally want to see a maze made like this.