British designer Es Devlin has created Library of Us, a massive rotating library for books that have informed her work over the years at Miami art week.
Library of Us was installed on the beachfront of the Faena Beach hotel in Miami Beach as part of the Faena Arts program.
Set on a metallic plinth, it has a compass-like form, with a triangular shelf rotating on a circular pool of water surrounded by a circular desk with chairs for reading.
The 2,500 books in the library were placed with spacing between them, allowing for light to pass through and will be illuminated at night during the city’s annual art week hinged on fair Art Basel.
The installation was designed to showcase Devlin’s own impressions of the act of reading, especially of reading in a social capacity, referencing the “temporary community of readers” at a library.
“I have always experienced libraries as silent, intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations soar, while clutched like kites by their seated bodies,” said Devlin.
“I sense the synaptic connections being forged, the resonances and associations at play within the minds of a temporary community of readers” she continued.
“This installation seeks to express the vitality of the library through a series of encounters between viewers revolving to meet one another through language around a circular collective reading table.”
As the readers sit around the table, the central aspect rotates, creating new lines of sight for readers at the fixed chairs around the installation. Technology company Meta provided rentals of its glasses made in collaboration with Ray-Ban that provided live translations from English to Spanish.
Each day, Devlin will lay out a selection of books to be read as a welcome respite from the frenetic energy of the art week.
One of the shelves on the installation has an LED screen, which displays various phrases from the books on the shelves accompanied by audio reading the same.
To mark the 10th anniversary of Faena Art, Devlin has also outfitted the Faena Beach hotel with a reading room. At the end of the week, the books will be donated to local libraries.
The photography is by Oriol Tarridas unless otherwise stated
The Library of Us is on view at Faena Beach from 2-7 December as part of Miami art week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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