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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.

I like the idea, even though these places often lack quality, at least the one here in the 7th. Usually I don’t find interesting stuff there, even though I always put quality stuff into it. As I don’t want to have non-favorite books stored at home, for me it’s nevertheless a good option (don’t throw away things # keep things in circulation # the sustainable way).

Last time I went there I found a book by danish philosopher kierkegaard, written in Italian language. I thought that’s funny! There was an older* (but not old - see „little ikaria“) woman skipping through the books there too. She was looking for art books, she said, once there were plenty of them. I told her that I had found kierkegaard in italian language. Yes, that’s interesting, she said. There was a lot of this stuff here, she added. Many good and rare books.
Then she told me that the shelve was originally a privately run project, and that it was the first in town (so probably in this whole country). A young, anticapitalistic artist has had the idea. I didn ́t know that! And, she said, the official opening ceremony was - because a pioneer act - shown on tv, and hermann nitsch* was the one who’d open it, but just for the show, she added. (later on it got a design by valie 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 here, 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. # the old/er ones* # the history of places #

*with old/er ones i mean people born +/-1950, the ones who lived

hippie time during hippie time and turned out to be more progressive

and even feminist than most young ones

** (in)famous artist from wiener aktionismus 1938-2022

*** feminist artist from vienna *1940