Library as Universe

Bronze 182x50x60 cm. Permanent location: Sculpture garden Oraq, Almaty, Kazakhstan

“The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries. The Library is a sphere whose exact center is in one of the hexagons, and whose surface is inaccessible.” Jorge Luis Borges

The sculpture inspired by Borges’s novel “The Library of Babel” reflects Plato’s idea of the Universal Library: the library as an infinite Universe, an infinite architecture of knowledge.

It is a memorial to all libraries that have been lost and destroyed, to the libraries of present and future, and to the libraries that never existed — imaginary libraries.

The sculpture reflects several aspects of library: Library as a Space, a Storage. Library as a Shelter, as a Home. Library as a Power and Identity. Library as a Reflection. Library as a Workshop. Library as a Labyrinth. Library as a Mind.
But first of all Library is Memory. Memory of humankind. Symbol of immortality. The Greek Goddess of memory – Mnemosine – the central symbol of my monument. She is not only the one who records and keeps the knowledge, ideas, texts, according to Greek mythology, she was also a mother of nine muses. And art therefore is an active part of universal Library.

​The three hands — the present, the future, and the past — embody time and history. The present writes history, the future holds the book, while the past attempts to hold back and stop the future.

The figure of the wandering philosopher, like one of the “shadows” in Plato’s cave, begins his journey up at the spiral staircase at the base of the Universal Library. Passing through centuries, through all the lost, existing, and future libraries, he steps into future, preserving the memory of generations through books.