London Constructs Maze Made Of 250,000 Books
This brings new meaning to getting lost in a book. An enormous labyrinth made of at least 250,000 books is being created at Southbank Centre as part of the London 2012 Festival. The aptly titled aMAZEme project is spearheaded by Brazilian artists Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo but will be built, in large part, by the public. The project needs volunteers who can help construct the 5,000-square-foot maze's 13-foot tall walls from July 26-30.
It is incredible, but the coolest part is that once it's finished, you'll find surprises as you wander through the walls of pages—things like authors doing live-readings and screens displaying literary quotes. As you leave, you'll be invited to take a book with you. The entire thing, from construction until the attraction closes on August 26, will be filmed from above by ten cameras and the footage will be available online.
Saboya and Pupo hope visitors will "discover new textures, images and emotions while being immersed inside the world of books." The two artists built a much less ambitious book sculpture in their hometown of Rio de Janeiro. Here's a (blurry) video of their previous installation:
I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon. What do you think of the project? Anybody going to check it out?
News by Kimberly Turner
Kimberly Turner is an internet entrepreneur, DJ, editor, beekeeper, linguist, traveler, and writer. This either makes her exceptionally well-rounded or slightly crazy; it’s hard to say which. She spent a decade as a journalist and magazine editor in Australia and the U.S. and is now working (very, very slowly) on her first novel. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two cats, ten fish, and roughly 60,000 bees.
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What a great idea! There's no way I'm venturing into London during the Olympics but when it's over I might check it out.
That's crazy. What a neat idea. I hope somebody thoroughly videos a walk-through of that at some point for those of us across the pond.
Ah! We aren't making it to London this summer because of the Olympics, but now I am very sad.
That is soooooooooooooooo AWESOME!!!!!