The tower of endless knowledge

What is Idiom?

Those who love to read know that every book is like a travel, an adventure that allows you to be part of a bigger story. Idiom is the perfect piece of art for those who is passionate about books and for those who are able to detach from reality through the reading. What is this work of art and where is it?

The tower of endless knowledge

# A well of endless knowledge with a window on the world

credits: the.road.jess.travels IG

In the public library of Prague there is an artistic project called idiom which is a tunnel made of books that seems infinite. It is a cylindrical and empty tower composed by 8 thousand books and it has one mirror at the bottom and one at the top which create the illusion that his inside is endless.

On one side of the installation there is a breach shaped as a tear. It is a little window on this world of knowledge that allows visitors to stick out to experience the sensation of an unlimited space.

The outside of the column is multicolor since the covers of the books create a multitude of different tones. The inside is instead dark white because of the color of the pages yellowed.

# A mandatory destination if you visit Prague

credits: travelambaz IG

The piece of art is a long period installation made by Matej Kren a Slovakian artist who has creates other artworks that celebrate the world of books.

At the beginning, in 1995, Idiom was exposed at the International Biennale of San Pao. Since 1998 it is definitely in the hall of the library and it became a destination that lure a lot of tourists.

# The infinite knowledge and the link between the book and the reader: the meanings of the artwork

credits: wonews.it

For how simple it can seem, a tunnel of books has a very deep meaning. The artwork wants to instill that books can give us an infinite knowledge that survive through the passing time. But this is not everything. The installation has the aim to interact with the spectator and to invite him in this universe of book and knowledge.

The position of the mirrors prevents the visitor from photographing the inside of the cylinder without also immortalizing himself. Here is another message from the author that urges us to reflect on the bond and connection between books, those who write them and those who read them. Idiom seems to be the artistic reproduction of what Proust said: “Every reader, when he reads, reads himself. The work of the writer is only a kind of optical instrument that he offers to the reader to allow him to discern what he would not have seen in himself without the book”.

CHIARA BARONE