For my Bachelor thesis, I worked on a commissioned project for the KB: Nationale Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands and a key part of the country’s cultural heritage. This project required me to use all of my skills i had learned during my bachelor. Below is the outcome.
The National Library’s collection in the Netherlands spans 120 kilometers of books, with 4.4 million unique items. How do you make such a vast collection visible when much of it is disappearing? To preserve it, the entire collection is being moved to a closed, automated warehouse.
I created an installation of 250 paper stacks, with each page representing one item from the Library’s collection. Visitors are encouraged to interacti with the pages. This slowly transforms the installation. After one year, the installation is destroyed. This is an accelerated representation of what would happen to the collection without conservation. Through this experience, visitors can reflect on the visibility and the fragility of cultural heritage.
I created an installation of 250 paper stacks, with each page representing one item from the Library’s collection. Visitors are encouraged to interacti with the pages. This slowly transforms the installation. After one year, the installation is destroyed. This is an accelerated representation of what would happen to the collection without conservation. Through this experience, visitors can reflect on the visibility and the fragility of cultural heritage.
