’Unfolding thoughts – Requiem of a phoenix’

Art Installation with recycled books by Black Box Genesis team for Book – the Lafkan project.

-After the closure of the historic Lafkan antique shop in Vasa, Art in Malakta rf got the opportunity to collect the books, offering the artists of the house the possibility to use them for artistic practices.

The Black Box Genesis team included them not only as material in the installation but decided to dedicate the project to this topic, examining its conceptual essence and technical peculiarities. The artist duo realized the art piece Unfolding thoughts – Requiem of a phoenix as a tribute to the shop founded in 1971, but also to the printed book: in a physical and symbolical way, and the social aspects related to it.

The artwork consists of two paper ‘steles’ suspended above a ‘pool’ filled with black wax.

Between the weave of the paper and the folds that also mold human features, threads emerge from the bottom of the two subjects, immersing themselves in the wax. The threads connect the two entities, as information, words, and ink, flowing between the two parts.
The wax, which looks like deep black water, is important for its property of being malleable and melting/crystallizing very quickly. Like the ideas, thoughts and knowledge that the book helps to fill and shape, which can only be enriched (not to mention the indirect skills that reading brings). A book, like a full vessel, empties itself and at the same time fills the reader in a communicative flow… transmitting the information.
The choice of the number of ‘steles’ is in relation to the exclusive relationship that the person has with the book. Their experience will be guided by subjectivity and the personal sphere.
An intimacy that in this work becomes almost solemn. The art piece also focuses on the technological part of the book: recycling the paper and using it to create the more physical and main part of the installation, which will also offer abstractions and precious details.

Partner & Collaborators: Malakta, Susanne Marins & Vaasa City Cultural Services.

Supported by the Swedish Cultural Foundation, Vaasa City Cultural Services & Gröndahl Brothers Foundation.