When literature will conquer the streets…

Taking advantage of our visit to New York in February, to attend the exhibition “Contemplating the Void”, at the Guggenheim Museum, in which we exhibited a proposal which we designed for the atrium of the museum, we want to move our lights into the street, which is what really interests us and what we most like to do.
Our intention is to carry out an ephemeral installation, “Literature versus traffic”, with light and books on one of the busiest avenues in Manhattan, closing one of its lanes for the use of pedestrians.

To that end, we plan to distribute 2000 illuminated books along the pavement, randomly placed in such a way that people can walk among them easily and stop to look at them or even read them.
We want literature to seize the streets and become the conqueror of public spaces, freely offering to those who walk by a space free of traffic which for a few hours of the night will succumb to the modest power of the written word.
Thus, an urban space conventionally reserved for speed, pollution and noise, for a few hours will become a place of peacefulness, relaxation and coexistence. Illuminated by a soft, diffuse light which makes us feel comfortable, in a pleasant environment, in spite of the chaos which surrounds us.

The books, of diverse topics will remain, during the entire intervention, at the disposal of anyone who wants to take them, signifying that the installation will recycle itself and be of the duration which the users want it to linger before disappearing.
In the end, the cars will return to occupy their place, but for many, the memory that once books occupied this same space, will change their relationship with the environment and surely they will tell those that accompany them many times that they saw them with their own eyes…





The battle has been won against the traffic

Literature won the battle again against New York traffic during the early hours on the 17th February under Brooklyn Bridge in Water St. in the gentrified Dumbo district which was free of cars then.

He have changed our original project in which we wanted to set up 2,000 books in a main avenue in Manhattan. But it was not possible as we didn´t find help with the licences and funding. In the end with 800 books and their corresponding lights we achieved a fabulous installation the way we like them to be – self-managed and aided by friends.
We have to say that our installation Literature versus traffic was possible thanks to Jorge Martín Vila who supplied us with all the material, found the right site and who let us stay in his house during the setting up, which lasted two days.

Text & Photos by Luzinterruptus