Luzinterruptus: Literature vs. Traffic

In June, Spanish art collextive Luzinterruptus went to Melbourne to carry out a large-scale installation — their largest so far — at the Light in Winter festival at the Fed square.

The festival's theme was "reading", and thus the collective was asked us to recreate Literature vs Traffic, a piece that had been previously installed in New York in a subversive manner, which the organization sought to expand and make grow for a month.

Thus the collective departed from the sunny summer in Madrid to Melbourne's mild and rainy winter, with the romantic intention of converting the modern and somewhat cold architecture of Fed (Federation) Square, into a cozy, human and intimate space, to encourage reading and tranquility.

"We had 10,000 books discarded by public libraries because they considered them to be obsolete, that the Salvation Army was responsible for collecting and donating them to us, altruistically of course, we also had our lights and the help of a lot of friends with whom we lived for a month doing the work of assembly and installation," states the collective.

"The objective of this piece? The same as the first time that we carried it out, that a river of books overflowing into the physical pedestrian spaces and installed itself in the space allocated to cars, stealing precious space to the dense traffic in the area", Luzinterruptus continues. "In a symbolic gesture in which literature took control of the streets and became the conquerer of the public space, offering the citizens, a space (not as big as we would have liked) in which the traffic withdrew yielding ground to the modest power of the written word."

Luzinterruptus managed, after a tough battle against the weather, to change the appearance of the plaza progressively for a month, and that on the night of June 30, a lane of the busy Flinders Street became a space for reading and coexistence, lit by a dim light that paled under the powerful LED displays installed in the plaza.

The piece served as a backdrop for many things that happened there during these days. Of course, it was the scene for a multitude of photos taken by the curious and visitors, in addition it was accompanied by many other pieces installed during the festival of light, and to commemorate the summer solstice it was used as the stage for the dance and performance piece Walking Through Words, directed by Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare in collaboration with various communities from the city.

On the final night, the overflowing river of books was offered to the visitors who took their time choosing the most interesting to take home. In addition, nine artists from the Yumi company conducted an impromptu performance that ended in a donation of books to the occupants of the cars circulating in the vicinity, who, surprised, opened their windows to receive these mysterious presents.

Although it was a complicated, large-scale installation, quite different from Luzinterruptus' usual modest and ephemeral works, the final balance was very positive.

Luzinterrupts: Literature vs. Traffic
Time of installation: 30 days
Damages: none
Exhibition time: 1 month