Local architects have created a public space for reflection and dialogue at the Oodi Helsinki Central Library. The project will stimulate discussions on the future of living, sustainable solutions and the culture of reading in a digital age.
Overview
From early July until the end of this year, visitors of the Oodi Helsinki Central Library can contemplate the future of living in the Reed, Read, Read installation, which presents a future where innovation meets learning from tradition and local knowledge to create sustainable solutions for a better life.
The installation is inspired by the traditional Finnish craft of “olkihimmeli”, a hanging decoration made of straw. In this case, however, the authors substituted the straw with a local reed plant. The reed is not just readily available, but its harvesting also helps prevent the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea by removing phosphorus and nitrogen from the ecosystem.
The installation is composed of 27 hexagonal modules, one for each EU member state, and one for each literary work on the Europe Readr platform. All this represents a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Reed, Read, Read project was initiated by the Embassy of Slovenia to Finland with support from the European Commission Representation in Finland and the EUNIC Cluster Helsinki. The installation was conceptualised and created by the Vapaa Collective.
Panel discussion on the importance of reading culture
On 18 October the Oodi Library hosted a panel discussion titled "The Future of Living: Reading Culture for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future" exploring the future of living, with artists, authors, architects, academics and others discussing their own vision of a more sustainable way of life. They all agreed that reading, literature and libraries are important for the shaping of our future. So read more about what Drago Jančar, Matti Kuittinen, Andreas Jungwirth and others had to say at the discussion or watch the replay below.
‘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.’