Images to be read, books to be watched Elzbieta Sala

Every group of friends has their own anecdotes which are repeated with pleasure on many different occasions. Those are usually stories based on a series of funny mistakes which can be easily explained. At the Education Section of MOCAK, there are also plenty of stories of this type. One of them concerns the action Return of the Book!/ Powrót Książki which along with the project Salt and the MOCAK Library we completed in spring 2012. One of its elements was the workshops when artists and other volunteers transformed unwanted books donated by the antique shop.

For the sake of this event, in a specially prepared box, we put artistic books mixed with volumes still waiting for the creating involvement. During the game, the participants were supposed to choose a book for themselves to transform it, in the meantime watching a couple of works of artists. None of the works was signed even though the works had specially attached designation on the third page of the book.

During the workshops, a funny situation took place. One of the books has been transformed twice. First, by a famous Krakow artist, and then by a little girl participating in the workshop. The artist accurately cut out the images from the book which presented remedial herbs and replaced them by pictures of poisonous plants. Visually, this intervention was nearly indistinguishable. The girl transformed the herbarium adding a pink-purple cover glittering with brocate. On the cover, it was written “Book” with a childish hand style.

The biggest surprise of this workshop was not the work of this girl but the action of a one-year old boy who “signed” one of the books with his teeth. He was seated on the table; he was turning the colourful pages and attentively observing the behavior of others. Eventually, he decided to “seize” one of the books and he bit it. The mother of the boy grasped this idea and bit the other edge of the volume. This way one of the works was created.

Children, both the little ones and those very adult, not only read books but they also play with them. Books are also to be watched, touched and to be drawn on. Inspired by this thought, we created a cycle of workshops connected to creation of books for children. The biggest popularity was gained by the installation building W stronę Dróżdża at the Children’s Book Fair in Krakow. Children could literally plunge in an enormous book, specially prepared for them by our Technical Department. Hidden in between pages bigger than them, they could be inside of it, between the letters created by them. This way they experienced how inspiring and involving might be this object.

Abandoned books might become popular again when children will be allowed to change them their own way and for example they will be equipped not only with corrective glasses but also crayons. Even if the situation seems to be insoluble, it is possible to become the creator. We were encouraging that not only during the described events and our publications for adults Go Draw! , but also during meetings from the cycle Zabawy z książką/ Playing with a Book when we were reading extremely interesting selected books and then we were all together creating works inspired by its content. Because images should be read, and books should be watched, a text should be drawn and a drawing should be written.

Emilia Pawłusz writes about the project The Return of the Book! on page 92.

Elżbieta Sala (born in 1984)

A graduate of the faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the faculty of Political Science at the University of Rzeszów, as well as a Ph.D. student at the faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. At Mocak, she manages the Education Section and co-creates the project Women's Museum.