THE MURAL that transforms a building into a GIANT LIBRARY

A building in which all art and book lovers would like to live. That's where it is

It looks like a giant bookstore but it is a building: let’s discover together the Utrecht open-air bookstore.

THE MURAL that transforms a building into a GIANT LIBRARY

# The initial design involved a smiley face

Credits: sololibri.net

It looks like a huge shelf in a library, in reality it is a giant mural designed and created by Jas Is De Man in collaboration with Deef Feed. The two artists transformed what was an anonymous facade of a building in the city center into a giant bookshop.

The idea of ​​transforming the wall of the three-storey building came from the tenants of the same building, including some friends of the artist Jas Is De Man. The initial project involved a large smiley face, but a bookcase had the ideal shape to fit the outline of the building.

The mural, created with the trompe l’oeil technique, depicts the shelves of a library that preserve some of the most beautiful literary works ever written.

The transformation is astounding: the bricks have taken on a new life and the windows of the apartments are now camouflaged among the great titles.

# The favorite books of the condominiums

Credits: siviaggia.it

The books that we find on the shelf on the beautiful imposing wall are not books chosen by chance but the favorites of the inhabitants of the building. Before starting, the artist asked them for a list of their most loved books that they would have liked to see painted.

So what was a simple anonymous facade of a building like many others becomes a means to tell the story of this neighborhood made up of people and cultures from all over the world. This part of the city of Utrecht is in fact populated by communities of different cultures and the artist wanted to give his work a great value of inclusion.

This is also demonstrated by the choice of titles represented, among which we find Harr Potter by J. K. Rowling, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but also the works of Khaled Hosseini and Jane Austen.

#Books from around the world

Credits: collater.al

In the open-air library we find titles written in eight different languages, with colorful covers; on some books there are only images, such as that of the red book indicating a spoon, and others are instead placed in disorder, on the side of the pages a bit like all the bookstores we have at home.
Among the coasts of the books one stands out, whose cover is a beautiful bright blue with gold lettering, which bears the name of the artist Is De Man and the year of production, 2019.

On the shelf there was also the representation of a large globe, symbolizing the multiculturalism that distinguishes the local community.

# A unique idea

Credits: collater.al

The one in Utrecht certainly represents a unique work of its kind, not only for the beauty of the mural which adds enormous aesthetic value to the neighborhood but above all for the choice of respecting and enhancing the cultural and social context through art.

To admire it you will have to go to the city on the corner of Amsterdamsestraatweg and Mimosastraat, do not forget to bring a camera with you to be able to immortalize it.


ARIANNA BOTTINI