The installation welcomes those entering the spacious hall filled with expositions of the Bakhmetyevsky garage, the Center of Tolerance, at the entrance, “under the wing” of the conference hall. Due to the domed, albeit plywood, vault with light-ventilation slots, it looks like a small church from the Greek islands - the allusion to the sanctuary is not entirely straightforward, but rather obvious. The similarity is reinforced by the fact that this is, of course, not quite a library. It is impossible to get comfortable and read, take a nap or work there. Rearrange the books as you like - please, even the typical library stools are provided. Look through - as much as you like. It is also possible to read the list of books on the outer wall of the sanctuary, you will immediately want to take a picture, "drag" the list to yourself (we love reading lists), but it is not even necessary, on the Internet the installation is accompanied by a project, there is a list in it, please, there is there is a promotional code from Bookmate for the books in the list, but again, it is impossible to read right there, but the spines of the books are beautifully highlighted. That is, in the web too - an installation and rather a sanctuary than a library itself. Non-Babylonian non-library.
What is it then? Personal list of books by journalist, critic, author of Kommersant, Novaya Gazeta, Colt, curator of exhibitions, co-author Grigory Revzin on the program on "Rain" by Anna Narinskaya. If we assume that the work to some extent reflects the personality of the author, then in this case it fully reflects the personality of the curator, because any reading list, in addition to the mentoring expert component, recommendations for those who read less than the author and hope to "catch up" contains also the personal part, the moment of self-disclosure, recognition: yes, here I am, I read this too. Here, among Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Orwell, Racine, Deleuze, Levi-Strauss, you can find science fiction writer Dan Simons, as well as - at the very last place of the Internet installation, The Book of Delicious and Healthy Food, with an old spine discovering that rather, it came from parents and the owner definitely does not buy new books in this genre, although cookbooks are specially mentioned in the description of the project. The rest of the books are "smart", no doubt about it, the reading circle evokes more than respect, even a slight thrill, and Euripides is here, and Vasari. It is interesting to look at the roots - in the end, this is what we often do when we come to visit, if an interesting conversation did not immediately start.
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zooming 1/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the press service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 2/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the Press Service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 3/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the Press Service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 4/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the press service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 5/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the Press Service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 6/7 Library of Nevabylon, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the Press Service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
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zooming 7/7 Library of Neva, installation by Anna Narinskaya and Alexander Brodsky Photo courtesy of the Press Service of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
For fiction, the usual, if not worn-out, method is to characterize the hero through his library. Here is the same kind of self-disclosure of the curator, or an invitation to visit. However, do not forget about the balance: no one told us that about it is, the real library or "recommended reading list". In a word, many questions arise, as befits any normal self-respecting installation. Either they open our hearts to us, or explain what exactly should be read to decent people, or offer to worship the book as such, which is in the Jewish Museum, and Jewish culture is the culture of the Book, is also appropriate. Perhaps even a hint of the Babylonian captivity is appropriate, which, one must think, becomes a metaphor for the stream of news that eats our emotions.
Regarding the book as such, this plot is spelled out in the annotation: “The title refers to Borges' story“The Library of Babel,”which speaks of a fantastic endless expanding repository of texts. It is believed that this description anticipated today's digital libraries. " I recall from a non-pathos: “It used to be that if a million monkeys were put on a typewriter, according to the theory of probability, one of them would write“War and Peace”. The advent of the Internet has proven that this is not the case. " In other words, selected information, the best, eternal, recommended books, are opposed to the uncontrolled mass of information, from which we all now suffer, while increasing it by our efforts. Personal preferences, books-friends, often from the parent's library, recognizable and nostalgic, somewhere a memory of childhood, somewhere a sign of a "party" ("How ?? You have not read" The Seagull Called Jonathan Levingston? " can you talk at all? ").
In a word, the topic is endless, raised not for the first time and more than once will be. There is a powerful attraction and danger in books, there is value, but there is emptiness and boredom, everything is there, as in people - so the conversation about both, one must think, is endless and in this sense is eternal. In some ways, the installation resembles a bookcrossing wardrobe, in some ways bookcases that have now appeared in many restaurants and hotels (by the way, in the project, the ceiling was not a vault, but a pitched roof, that is, it was more a house of friends than a sanctuary). Somewhere they can be an element of decor, but somewhere they can force you to stay in the hotel for a couple of days, depending on which set of literature.
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zooming 1/6 Ne Babylonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
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zooming 2/6 Nebabilonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
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zooming 3/6 Ne Babylonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
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zooming 4/6 Nebabilonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
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zooming 5/6 Ne Babylonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
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zooming 6/6 Nebabilonian library installation, project. 2019 Authors Alexander Brodsky, Nadia Korbut, Kirill Ass. Curator Anna Narinskaya
It also resembles another installation by Alexander Brodsky - a trailer with poems by Russian émigré poets in London at the Pushkin House, built two years ago. It was more brutal there - roofing material, 101 kilometers, but here it is more accurate, the library is still. Alexander Brodsky definitely likes the expositional technique, especially for showing small graphics and non-visual information - here it was also in the Planetarium - because it disposes to concentrated perception and allows you to feel the wall behind you, which is important, especially in contrast to the feeling of an open back, characteristic for spacious exhibition spaces. For books, this technique is also, definitely, suitable: by enthusiastically reading or even leafing through books in the store, we, in general, turn into a kind of snail; in this case, this state is conveyed more than recognizably.
