This art work is done by Alicia Martin in 2010. The place is in Casa De America, Madrid, Spain. Casa de America Museum is a cultural center dedicated to promoting Latin American art and history. It showcases works of all upcoming and established artists. The buildings of there are historical and cultural. The art work done there by Alicia Martin makes the things become more historical and artistic. The art work is actually surrounding the historical building, in fact, not only one but three of them are done.
The tile of this art work is called Biografias, a site specific installation and book art in Spain. Actually, the place of this art work is near the historical building.
The art work is made by 5000books pouring out from the window of the building. This art work defies gravity and draws attention with its grandeur size. These gravity-defying book sculptures from Alicia Martin Biografies series were installed in the three of Madrid’s historic buildings, each installation consisting of approximately 5,000 books.
To support the heavy book, each sculpture consists of a special material- mental inside. So the books are very firm. The metal skeleton gives the sculptures shape. However, the books’ pages are left loose and free to blow in the wind. When you look this art work, it just looks like a “book hurricane” coming out from the window. What is important is that the art work is combining smaller objects into one larger object, i.e. many smaller books into one large sculpture. This art work is very amazing. The books of the art work are read and old.
There are many books in this art work, that means there are many types of books as well. However, when many types of book are combined into one large piece. It seems that it is not many types anymore. But it becomes one type.
The books there are daily objects. It is very easy to find book in our daily life, but for this book art, it is difficult to find. The books there are neither expensive nor special. It is the recycled books. But when it combines small books into one giant sculpture, it is special and the concept of this art work is really cool.
The book hurricane is not entirely made by books. Besides books, there is one layer under the books. That layer is some hard material – metal to support the books, as to create an anti-gravity sense. That is not to lead the books falling down.
The concept of this art work is that Alicia Martin wants to state that there is the knowledge literature of visual conflicting. The books used in the art work are actually recycled books. This actually becomes an art work. Moreover, Martin works to make us reconsider how our environments leave certain material and objects vulnerable and exposed. Certainly, she challenges our notions of architecture and form- in contrast to the stiff and strict structural core, the books’ pages can be seen to flutter in the wind.
The concept is really important for the development of literature. The anti-gravity of these books really attracts people a lot. There are 5000books consists of different colors, I love the books’ pages to be leaving loose and blow by the wind regularly. The outlook of the art work is just like a book hurricane. It looks really amazing for this outlook. It creates a specific feature for that place since there are not only one Biografias.
Martin’s giant book structures give life to the inanimate objects filled with knowledge as this book hurricane is made by lots of book. And book itself is really important to our daily life. This art work is really impress people a lots as the concept is special and related to literacy. But I hope that the book hurricane is waterproof. If not, what if it is raining?
