The stolen library 02

Bosc d’Anjou posted a photo:

Detail of Edmond de Waal’s installation The library of exile (2019) at the Ateneo Veneto during the 2019 Venice Biennale.

The installation, now dismantled after being shown in Venice and later at the British Museum, consisted of a roofless pavilion clad with liquid porcelain and lined with shelves displaying a collection of books written by authors living in exile as well as four bookcases with de Waal´s own pottery work. As shown in this partial view of the installation, a strong contrast emerged between the exuberance of the book covers and de Waal’s mostly colourless pottery. De Waal considered it at the time as the most important sculpture of his life. Among his sources of inspiration, his great-grandfather’s library in Vienna, looted by the Nazis in 1938, as described in de Waal’s memory The hare with amber eyes.