Here you find information about the Norwegian Guest of Honour Pavilion with the art installations "Invisible Silence" and "Wittgenstein's Boat" at the Frankfurter Buchmesse.
The design of the pavilion
The design of the pavilion is the result of a competition entered by more than 60 architects from Norway. The task set for contestants was to develop a spatial concept for the large exhibition hall and to come up with suggestions on how the various activities forming part of Norway’s presence at the book fair might optimally unfold. The winning design by Manthey Kula and LCLA Office depicts literature as a space and as a landscape. It consists of a group of table-like objects representing the ideas, elements and characters of Norwegian literature in material form.
The 23 tables, which provide space for books and for readers, are three-dimensional works that are both abstract and playfully narrative. Their design was inspired by poems published over a period of one year on the Guest of Honour website www.norway2019.com under the heading ‘Poem of the Week’.
The pavilion is divided into two distinctly separate spaces. On one side are the fantastical book tables surrounded by mirrored walls and large photos taken in the far north of the country, the land of the Sámi, by the professional photographer Per Berntsen. In the middle is the main stage where events take place from morning to evening. In front of the large balcony, the pavilion offers space for a second, smaller stage as well as an exhibition put together by the Frankfurter Buchmesse – ‘Books on Norway’ with publications about and from the country – and a café serving Norwegian specialities.
Invisible silence
At the same time, the designers took into account the various activities that will take place during the fair. One of the tables in the pavilion is dedicated to smell: a silent biography of a Norwegian in 22 smells. It is created by the smell researcher and artist Sissel Tolaas and author and explorer Erling Kagge. The installation titled Invisible silence - The best things in life have no lasting forms is consisting of 22 objects placed on the table, where the audience is invited to experience, discover and associate a Norwegian life through smell.
Wittgenstein's Boat
Visitors can also see an installation by the artist Marianne Heske. In ‘Wittgenstein’s Boat’, she visualises the periods that the philosopher Wittgenstein spent in a remote location in the Sognefjord in Norway, where he wrote a major part of his oeuvre.
The Future of the book table sculptures
Although the pavilion itself will be open to visitors for only five days, the book table sculptures will live on after the fair: they will be distributed among German bookstores in gratitude for the cordial and valuable cooperation between booksellers and the Guest of Honour.