In cooperation with local actors in Bangkok, Europe Readr has created an installation that redefines the public and private interface and offers a safe, comfortable and enjoyable reading space for people in one of Bangkok’s neighbourhoods.
The project is a modest attempt to make a pleasant semi-public space that invites people to take a seat, rest and read in the context that public spaces are usually neglected.
The installation is a simple but elegant sitting and reading space that redefines Bangkok’s public and private interface. The idea was to create a connected wooden platform, one part being inside the front yard of the shop building under the tree, and the other part protruding from the fence and becoming a public bench for passers-by.
At the opening of the installation on 12 December, Professor Davisi Boontharm from co+re said: “What I like about the design of this installation is its simplicity. This is not an eye-catching or fancy project that employs cutting-edge technology. This project is modest, realised with the reuse of material. Our team believes in the value of “the old” that has the power to create character and constitute new meanings to the place.”
So come sit down and maybe read a book at 623 Chokchai 4 Rd in Latphrao District, Bangkok.
‘Gast Groeber’s short stories in Every Day Just Hides Another put the focus on characters that increasingly distance themselves from their usual surroundings. The story ‘A Village Idyll’ describes the life of a man who has been ostracized by the villagers ever since he ran over a boy with his car. Groeber smartly shows how the real circumstances of the accident, which have an essential influence on our moral judgement, are no longer taken into consideration at all once the culprit is found. Groeber’s description of the threat to the individual by the Others is also cleverly done: in these stories, it is never clear from the start whether the threat is merely imaginary or very real. Interpersonal relations float between the superficial and a precarious intimacy.
What should be highlighted in Every Day Just Hides Another is the obvious desire to achieve a consistent topical conception that only a few texts don’t follow. Groeber also aims at a decidedly literate, yet always natural language, which is quite an achievement given the limited stock of role models. The attempt for example to construe a character perspective using only impersonal phrases and infinitives that the author makes in ‘The Unbearable Weight of Waiting’ is utterly successful.’