Sweden. 2018

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Material: 180 donated or found books. Ikea bookcase 'Billy'. This piece has been selected in Liljevachs Vårsalongen 2019, the Spring Exhibition in Liljevalchs, Stockholm.

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‘180 books in Swedish, organized in alphabetical order, in an Ikea ‘Billy’ bookcase’ is part of a larger project named ‘The Non-Functional Library’.

 

'The Non-Functional Library' is an ongoing intervention that I began in 2017 when I secretly started to turn books around in libraries, bookshops, private places, medical centers, schools, churches, shops, in Ikea...

 

I finally decided to make it public, in a performance, in one of my favorite libraries: Stockholm Stadsbibliotek, my second home when I was living in this city. That was in November 2017. You can watch a 5 minute video of the performance here.

 

Books have always been important in my life. They are the place where I feel safe, motivated and inspired. In books, I find a way to understand the world. However, when I arrived to Sweden, I couldn't find in books the answers for my everyday life: understanding a new language, a new social environment, new circumstances and situations. I couldn’t find in books how to book a doctor's appointment, how to walk on the icy streets, how to apply for the work permit… The ordinary life needs to be lived, not read!

 

Therefore, the ongoing project 'The Non-Functional Library' it is not just about books in Swedish that I cannot read, it's about every single situation that I haven't been able to understand.

 

By turning the books around, one by one, I recreate the effort of living in another country and the small steps that I have done during the last years lived here. The viewer can experience the frustration of not being able to reach the information, even if it is very close. 

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By turning the books, one by one, I recreate the efforts to live in another country and the small steps I have taken during my time in Sweden.

 

The Ikea bookshelf is a symbol of ordinary life, books and an iconic object from Ikea, the company that, according to popular perception, refers to Sweden.

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Please check the following links for more information.

About Liljevachs Vårsalongen 2019

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About 'The Non-Functional Library' project.

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Review in 'Dagens Nyheter' newspaper by Ingela Lind, (Pdf in a new tab)

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Review in 'Göteborg Posten' newspaper by Magdalena Ljung. (Pdf in a new tab).

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Review in 'Om Konst' art critique digital site, by Niels Hebert.