Dogma of Creative Intellectual Movement (Movement 16)
Notebooks of European Contemporary Movement (Fundamental Laws and Absurd Dogmas)
PART II
Absurd Dogmas (Notebooks I-V)
Notebook V – Intellectual Movements
MOVEMENT 16
Every object is in movement, albeit in physical immobility, because it induces movement in the surrounding bodies (Dogma of Creative Intellectual Movement)
On the other side of the river, you can see a large, somewhat eccentric building, standing out in the urban landscape, as if trying to grab peoples’ attention. That part of the city is called Pardaugava, which means beyond the Daugava (the name of the river that separates the city into two halves, leaving some undecided islands in between). The name, per se, is a testament to the secondary status of this margin opposite to the oldest and noblest part of Riga.
In terms of volume, on one side there are historic buildings, in the middle, on one of the islands, a futuristic broadcasting antenna, and on the other side (it will always be the “other side” even for those who live there), an 11-storey giant, which in its enormous mass, houses all the culture, history and imagination of a people.
The Latvian National Library recently moved (in 2014) to the voluptuous building known as the Castle of Light and is a place of pilgrimage to books and literature. Inside, right in the center of the first floor, you can see the various levels, decorated with thousands of books behind display cases, in a devout display that gives the space an ecclesiastical aura, as if the main purpose there was to venerate books as a sacred entity.
This temple has 5 million books, spread over the building’s several floors and multiple rooms. One would have to read 13 books a day, uninterruptedly for over 1000 years, to know all its literary content. But herein lies one of the questions. The books resting on shelves are part of the complex movement of a perfectly living system. The Library. Curiously enough, in one of the many rooms throughout the eleven floors that house exhibitions, there is currently an exhibition inspired by the work of Borges and the concept of a living library, based on the Library of Babel.
A library never stops, with new titles coming in, others going, the most fragile being restored, and new catalogs. The Latvian National Library doesn’t stop either, because in addition to the countless readers who spread out over the 11 floors, it also welcomes those who decide to go to the 12th and 13th (yes, the building actually has 13 floors) to stand on the pointed top of the building designed by Gunnar Birkerts and enjoy the surrounding landscape, such as Pardaugava, the river and old Riga.
A small journey at the top, incomparably small compared to the journey that each of the 5 million book spines on the floors below has to offer. Or wouldn’t a book be a journey fully charged with movement.
Published in November 15, 2024
Author: Carlos Norton
To know more: Notebooks of European Contemporary Movement (Fundamental Laws and Absurd Dogmas)
Technical file
Movement 16
Sound recorded with Roland CS-10EM binaurals
Latvia’s National Library, Riga
July 18, 2024 15:30
Ficheiros audio
Mov 16
LOCALIZAÇÃO
LOCAL: Riga
LATITUDE: 56.9604299
LONGITUDE: 24.10007999999999