Reading

20.01. – 22.05. 2021

Appreciated and Abandoned Books IV. Reading

This exhibition by sculptor and paper artist Anne Rudanovski – the fourth exhibition of the series Appreciated and Abandoned Books studying the meanings of and raising questions about the book as a format – is a visual cultural-anthropological research focusing on reading and everything it entails. Its methodological basis is observation, statistics, and research in this field, as well as personal experience and the artist's position.

The historical background of the building of the Kondas Centre creates the context for the exhibition, and a place-specific environment. It has inspired one of the conceptual axes of the exhibition. Namely, the former vicarage at 8 Pikk street housed Viljandi’s central library for 54 years.

Reading as a cultural phenomenon concerns all of us; it is integrated in our complex perception of the world. The year 2010 was the Reading Year in Estonia, aiming to bring reading into the spotlight and counterbalance the decline in reading habits. How will we read in ten years? What standards have we adopted, unnoticed? Books and readers, the relationship between the two in the changing times – READING, these are the keywords of this exhibition.

The exhibition is supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment.