Artist Used 100,000 Banned Books To Recreate A Full-Size Parthenon On Top Of Nazi Book Burning Site

Published 7 years ago

The German city of Kessel has just become home for one of the most impressive pieces of art that we’ve seen in a while. It was created by the Argentinian artist Marta Minujín, 74, who has decided to bring back the topic of political oppression by making a full-size replica of the Greek Parthenon using 100,000 copies of banned books.

Part of the Documenta 14 art festival the massive structure called ‘The Parthenon of Books’, represents the resistance to political repression by taking the symbol of democracy and coating it with the countless written evidence of oppression.

Minujín relied on the help of students from Kassel University who together identified over 170 titles that were, or still are, banned in different countries around the world, and used the donated physical copies to build a temple out of them by sticking the books to the steel frame and using plastic sheeting to keep them in place.

If the structure itself wasn’t enough, it was built on the very same historic site where the Nazis burnt around 2,000 books in 1933 as part of their censorship campaign… A truly mind-blowing piece of art.

More info: documenta14.de (h/t: mmm, boredpanda)