THE HOUSE OF BURNED BOOKS

Or flooded…?!?

Both fire and water kill books.

And this killing can be intentional, or not.

It is hard to believe one would choose to kill books intentionally, yet a certain Florida pastor burned a Quran not too long ago, while the recent events in Afghanistan seemed to point in a similar direction...

We do not know if the burning of the Qurans and other religious books in a pile with garbage at an American base in Afghanistan was intentional…we like to think it was not, although indifference in such matters could be similarly culpable.

The very writer of this small text discovered some years ago, in New York City, a large collection of very old theological books thrown to the garbage… hundreds of books, some of them 300 years old…

It is possible that in a much less “developed” country this would not have happened easily… to discard books, to throw them to the garbage… but in New York City it did happen, as we just said, and it continues to happen, on an almost daily basis.

The production and the consumption of books, as of anything else, is so huge and so impersonal that almost inevitably nothing truly matters, any longer.

So if a whole theological library is thrown to the garbage, for whatever reason, or if some Bibles or Qurans or any other book considered in the past sacred, in many of the so-called “developed” countries such an act might not be by necessity perceived as a disaster, let alone a sacrilegious one… after all, again, the very writer of this text discovered some years ago two wooden crosses discarded in the backyard of a church, not long after Easter… yes, the very symbols of Christianity were thrown to the garbage, and by none other than the Church itself…!?!

Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is where “progress” arrived at…!!!!????????

It is one thing to declare yourself an atheist and to consequently display a certain skepticism towards what once was considered sacred, and it is another thing altogether to burn what for some people still is the very sustaining core of their belief system.

This is desecration. And even the most cynical between us should not allow and be allowed such discouraging and tragic gestures.

But in a world where some soldiers take the decision to urinate on the corpse of an "enemy," as we read, in disbelief, not too long ago, anything can happen...!?!?!?!? Anything, indeed...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We ask you to reflect with great concern and seriousness on this matter, and to imagine, as a form of protest and of deep mourning, THE HOUSE OF BURNED BOOKS.

Life is irreversibly damaged by such gestures of desecration, be they "by accident" or not.

If some believe that nothing is sacred any longer, this does not mean that they should be allowed to be criminally inclined towards what constitutes, for others, the very blood and spirit of their lives.

Protest, dear architect, and mourn!

Not only the death of God, but also the death of the one who was still waiting, naively perhaps, for Godot…!!!!!!!!!

Please send us ANY work, ANY size and ANY format, and we will gladly publish it, hoping that you do share with us similar concerns. The deadline is at your discretion.

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery