I carried out a project entitled The Blue Books in Shanghai Juvenile Offender Correctional Center from 2008 to 2009. The Blue Books was a mini library set up in the center for those juvenile offenders. That project pushed me to think about several questions. What was the relationship between The Blue Books and me? As an art project, what could it bring to audience? What were the future possibilities for such kind of library with strong personal style?
After over a year of preparation, I decided to set up a library in the village where I was born.
The village is located a place some 5 kilometers south to Feng County, north Jiangsu Province. Few people in the village continue their study. Most children drop out of school when they finish primary education. They would then start to work and make money. Rivers in the village have turned to become dumps. Trees have been felled. The village is rife with noises from the plants and workshops. Relationships among people are getting increasingly undisguised. It becomes all about money and profit. I realize that money cannot fix the problems for the village as the fundamental problem lies in the scarcity of spiritual food. That was how the idea to set up “A Library” occurred to me.
Like The Blue Books, A Library is also an institution featuring my personal style. The library was transformed from an abandoned midibus/a new space and placed at the open space in from of the gate of my house. The books were bought by me or selected from my own collection and donations. Hence my knowledge structure influences what the library would present. Like myself, A Library would keep growing and changing as time goes by. It is not affiliated to any commercial companies or political organizations. To be more specific, it is independent spiritually. It may be very small with a collection of only several hundreds of books. But it’s more than an ordinary library. I would explore more possibilities within it.
A Library will remain a focus of my practice in the next few years. I will keep it as an integral part of my art practice to ensure that it will keep developing as I do as an artist. I try to study the mutual influence and interference between A Library and the place where it is set up. Because of what I do, more people would be involved and we all experience some growth and changes during the process.
A Library will be open to public free of charge on every Saturdays and Sundays. Mr. Wei Yiming, a retired primary school teacher, is hired as the library director and librarian. He would be in charge of the operation of the library.
A Library will hold workshops on a regular basis. Artists will be invited to guide children in the village to make art. A Library will present lectures on a regular basis, introducing art and culture to villagers. A Library will present movies and documentaries on a regular basis. ………
proposal Library originally was presented as part of archive exhibition Institution for the Future curated by Biljana Ciric
A LIBRARY will be open on September 2012,now we accept the books from your donations.
Address: Li Taibin Mid Team Qiuzhuang Zhuyao Village Sunlou Town Feng County Xuzhou City Jiangsu Province, 221700 PR China 中国江苏省徐州市丰县孙楼镇朱尧村仇庄中队 221700 李太彬 (收)
E-mail:limuff@gmail.com Website:www.iamlimu.org
Li Mu was born in 1974, Feng County, Jiangsu Province, China and lives and works in Shanghai.He graduated from the Suzhou School of Art and Design, Suzhou in 1995 and the Academy of Art of Tsinghua University, Beijing in 2001. Li Mu created works of different categories, including video, photography, installation and performance. He looked forward to transcending the boundaries of himself and broadening his understanding towards art via these works. Everyday life played an important role in his works. A relationship between the environment, the general public and him was established, blurring the boundary between art and life by resorting to his life experience. A kind of self-improvement was achieved during the way.