Alicia Framis

ROOM OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS

The Blueproject Foundation presents “Room of Forbidden Books”, the new solo show by Alicia Framis in Il Salotto from January 20th to May 14th 2017. The main space of the Foundation, completely renovated for the occasion, hosts this installation that belongs to Banc Sabadell’s collection and that is unseen in Spain.

Room of Forbidden Books is part of the “Forbidden Rooms” series, a recent series of rooms – rooms of yell and oblivion, rooms for protesting or developing dissident ideas, where the Catalan artist Alicia Framis keeps questioning the social and human environment, through the alienation devices and other coercion media. Framis proposes a room for forbidden books, a library of books which have been censored or whose authors have suffered, or continue suffering, from difficulties with the judicial or politic power. In the most serious cases, they would have to face prison, torture or death.  

This room for forbidden books becomes a study and reflection place where everyone can evaluate the damage of censorship that these books once suffered from, being nowadays considered as masterpieces and part of the world’s cultural heritage. It is obvious how censorship superposed through time and indifferently on works with the most different contents, from Voltaire’s Candide to Giordano Bruno’s writings, and from Nabokov’s Lolita to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex.

Room of Forbidden Books creates an opportunity for people to reflect on the situations and contexts in which the nearly 200 books on display were banned at different points in history. Despite being censored, nowadays these books are widely read and appreciated, many of them considered classics. Becoming aware of this, another layer is added to the work: the relationships established among the readers. What happens between the people sitting in this space, reading these books, is what is most important. You are invited to enter these rooms, to confront what is forbidden, what is secret, what is possible.

The room is just an excuse to start a dialogue. Room of Forbidden Books has been shown at Picasso Museum, France, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam and has been selected to show at Art Basel – Parcours, 2015.

Alicia Framis (Barcelona, Spain, 1967) lives and works in Amsterdam.

Alicia Framis is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work blends architecture, design, fashion and performance. Her work is project based and focuses on different aspects of human existence within contemporary urban society. Born in Barcelona, Framis studied in the Fine Arts School, Barcelona University and in École de Beaux Arts, Paris. She also completed a master in the Institut d’Hautes Etudes, Paris; and another one in the Rijksakademie Van Beelde Kunstende, Amsterdam. She has become known around the world for her performances and actions, such as Loneliness in the City (1999-2000), The Secret Strike Films (2003-2006); an installation accessible to women only, Minibar, at the 2nd Berlin Biennial in 2001; and Anti_dog (2002-2003), realized to represent Holland in the Dutch pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennial in 2003. Recent solo shows include Reading Together at Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2014) and Framis in Progress at MMK Arnhem; Galerie I'm TaxisPalais, Innsbruck (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art in Leon; and Centre Contemporary Art Brugge (2014).