Books have been burnt time and again throughout history – but the resistant spirit of the words could never be banished. In Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, memorising books is an act of rebellion. Man himself becomes a book. This idea inspired the Norwegian Mette Edvardsen to create her project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine. In 2010, she began building the library of living books: Since then, performers all over the world have been memorising books. These books can be “borrowed” from bookshops, museums or libraries and “read” for 30 minutes. The project examines how memory not only preserves its objects, but also constantly transforms them. Each new reading of the books leads to surprising and touching encounters between strangers. Each “reading” is for one person only and lasts 30 minutes.
Books in German: Die Baugrube by Andrej Platonow; Vielleicht Esther by Katja Petrowskaja; Nachdenken über Christa T. by Christa Wolf; Faust I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde by Emine Sevgi Özdamar. Book in English: I Am a Cat by Söseki Natsume.
ANALOG! continues this tradition with contemporary artistic references and offers a series of productions that deal with the former Stephaneum secondary school.
More about the project at salzkammergut-2024.at
