Open book-shelves :: 2024
They are in every town and city, even small villages have them - open book shelves. Places where you can put books into and/ or get books from, 7 days a week 24 hours a day.
Last spring I went there and found a book by danish philosopher kierkegaard, written in Italian language. The first - kind of - interesting book in 3 years ! There was an older (but not „old“) woman skipping through the books there too. She was looking for art books, she said, once there were plenty of them. There was a lot of interesting stuff here, she added. Many good and rare books.
She told me that the shelf was originally a privately run art project. A nearby living art student had the idea of creating a flow and exchange of literature away from the usual commercial interests and built the place. I didn ́t know that! Artists from vienna´s Aktionismus“ would be here for the opening (as it was the first shelf of this kind in all vienna) and for the design (H Nitsch*, V Export**)
So yes, that’s probably different to other bookshelves at other places. They don’t have THIS history. Wherever you scratch on here, the most rebellious and arty things resurface. And there are still people who were there, who can tell you the stories of how it really was.
I took the kierkegaard book and left. What a wild place! # a quarter as a teacher #
