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Artist Is Constructing a Parthenon Made out of Banned Books
The replica will be a monument to free speech
Flanked with 100,000 copies of banned books, Argentinian artist Marta Minujín announced she is constructing a massive art installation, The Parthenon of Books, to honor the tenets of democracy and creative freedom. According to Open Culture, the structure will be built in Friedrichsplatz in Kassel, Germany, which is a former site of the Nazi regime’s infamous ideological book burnings. Minujín will utilize books that are restricted from around the world in various countries — some of the titles date as far back as the early 1500s. If you want to peruse the full list of the books, you can do so, here. The public is also welcome to submit their own text suggestions, and in pretty much all senses, this project aims to include and benefit the international community of readers. Those who visit the site are permitted to take a book with them when they leave. Minujín hopes that every single copy will be gone by the end of the installation’s run.
The Economist predicts that the construction of the banned book Parthenon will be a top ten moment of 2017. They put together a short video outlining Minujín ambitious plans, which believe it or not, they’ve been executed before in Argentina in 1983. Enjoy!
