Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has opened the doors to Phrontisterion – a new library home to a collection of more than 30,000 books and maps, held by the museum’s founder David Walsh – which was first unveiled last month.
The project’s title – a term that means a “thinkery” – borrows from the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ comedy The Clouds, in which he ridicules the “self-certainty of the educated,” a communique from MONA notes. According to the museum’s press release, “[The library is] a place to explore, be entertained, and research topics as diverse as ancient brewing methods, winter rituals, heavy metal pollution, Antarctic exploration, science fiction, sex, casinos, charcuterie and the museum collection.”
MONA’s librarian Mary Lijnzaad said, “If you want to know what David [Walsh] is really like, browse his bookshelves.” They include rare books such as Shakespeare’s “First Folio,” Sir Isaac Newton’s Opticks and Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, among many others.
The media release from MONA notes that “the way Phrontisterion organises books is as idiosyncratic as the collection itself,” using novel technology developed by Art Processors “to treat books as curatable objects rather than conforming to the Dewey Decimal System.”
Art Processors’ Nic Whyte commented, “David [Walsh]’s brief was simple: let us put a book anywhere and still find it. So we’ve built a library with no fixed order that stays completely navigable. As far as we know, that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
The architecture and main interior fitout of Phrontisterion has been designed by architect Nonda Katsalidis, working with Mona’s design director Adrian Spinks for designs in Phrontisterion’s map room, study, cellar and lounge, as well as the children’s library.
Located in the space beneath the inverted-ziggurat levels of a concrete amphitheatre titled Elektra, by German artist Anselm Kiefer, Phrontisterion is connected to the museum’s existing buildings via tunnels in the sandstone.
Alongside the library’s collection of books, there are artworks by Joshua Yeldham, Lucas Grogan, Rachel Marks, Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu, Matthew Barney and Julian Charrière on display, as well as a desk, staircase and several chandeliers by local blacksmith and artist Pete Mattila.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
