A Tower of Babel built up with books

3:50 PM Sandra Gutrejde 0 Comments

A giant Tower of Babel made with 30,000 books, created by renowned Argentine pop artists Marta Minujin, will be inaugurated on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, at Plaza San Martin.

This work, one of the main activities of the celebration of the nomination of Buenos Aires as World Book Capital 2011, consists of a spiral metallic structure, 28 meters high, covered by 30,000 books in different languages, that have been donated by individuals from the city of Buenos Aires, and embassies, delegations and associations from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Azerbaiyán, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, United States, Slovenia, Spain, France, Philipines, Finland, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Vasque Country, Pakistan, Perú, Poland, Czek Republic, Russia, Great Britain, Siria, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Uruguay, Xunta de Galicia, and a delegation from Catalunya.

Visitors will be invited to climb the 7 floors of the Tower in groups of 100 people, while listening to a soundtrack created by Marta Minujin, based on the word "book" pronounced in all languages. The base of the Tower is made up of literature, geography and history books from around the world. The first and second levels are dedicated to American works, the third and fourth to Europe, and fifth and sixth to Asia.
On June 28th, the last day of the exhibition, visitors will be able to pick up a book of their choice and take it home. The rest will make up the first multi-lingual library in Buenos Aires.

Location: Plaza San Martin, Av. Santa Fe and Maipu
Dates: May 11th to June 28th, 2011
Opening hours: 10am to 10pm
Free entrance