In the Cupola Hall: What could kill the Book. The Book Now and in the Future.
Date: 27.5 - 31.12.2010
Place: The Cupola Hall
The most important books in my life:
Well-known persons’ favorite books throughout their lives.
The book as an experience.
The diverse forms of books – from paper books to electronic books and “vooks”. What will the future bring?
Events related to the exhibition during the autumn: lecture series, reading circle, book clinic and other similar events.
Exhibition design: Managing Director Katriina Jaakkola, Architect Marjaana Kinnermä, professor Leena Kirstinä, Finnish teachers Eveliina Ventelä and Marika Kesseli.
The What Could Kill the Book exhibition ponders the future of the book. And what of the book’s future? The electronic book is here to stay. Apple sold over a million iPads in the USA during the fi rst month of its launch. The fi rst readers for Finnish electronic books are almost ready. Book publishers are reducing their personnel. Is the book dying? Will it continue to be read in paper form? Will bookshelves and school bags empty? The What Could Kill the Book exhibition explains that the book has survived through the ages. Books have been threatened previously by wars, censorship and fi re. Even Socrates himself considered the art of writing a threat to the human memory.
It is unlikely that anything could better convey the What Could Kill the Book theme tha n our literature’s oldest documents, the medieval parchments that have survived centuries of wear and tear. These parchments are presented with ultramodern technology – a digitally programmed touchscreen where visitors can examine treasures of the Middle Ages with the flick of a finger. The exhibition starts with the story. In the beginning there were folktales and storytellers. The tales spread throughout the world, generating new stories in the process. Then the arts of writing and printing were invented; books proliferated worldwide.
The exhibition starts with the authors – how are books created? The authors responses: writing is a passion, one cannot live without writing, writing is a healing process. The author is also a storyteller who needs a listener. The readers wait, and the writer captivates their imaginations.
The exhibition also depicts the Finns’ love of books. A questionnaire asking a group of wellknown Finns to name the most important books in their lives was organized jointly between the students of the Vaskivuori and Herttoniemi Upper Secondary Schools and their Finnish teachers. The respondents’ favorite books, along with their explanations, are included in the exhibition. The age of the respondents ranged from 12 to 86, and many professions were represented: chef, composer, singer, video game producer, piercing artist, TV journalist, comic strip artist, nature photographer, top athlete, executive, cosmologist. The responses demonstrate how important – even life-changing – books are in the lives of today’s Finns: “Consolation during my life’s turning points.” “After I read this it was clear that the world would never look the same.”
One of the exhibition’s main purposes is to spark an interest in reading and interactivity among adults and young people. Available are readers for electronic books and two new touchscreens, one of which focuses on parchments and the other on a selection from the Save a Book project. Students from the Vaskivuori and Herttoniemi Upper Secondary Schools have also made a video presentation for the exhibition in which they read excerpts from their own favorite books. In the autumn, the exhibition will expand to the National Library’s Agricola Room where there will be a bookcrossing shelf; a visitor to the exhibition can take a book and replace it with one of his or her own. Upper secondary school students will also assemble an exhibition of their own favorite books in the Library’s Café.
The exhibition is also associated with many events held during the autumn: reading circles, lecture series and book clinics where information about caring for one’s own books can be obtained.
Free admission
Further information
Cultural Coordinator Inkeri Pitkäranta, Tel. 09-191 22738, 050 3027238, inkeri.pitkaranta@helsinki.fi
Press Release and press image materials:
Cultural Secretary Sisko Vuorikari, Tel. 09-191 22761, 050 3006620, sisko.vuorikari@helsinki.fi
