Event detail
Flying poetry and divination on the Clore Ballroom floor..
Imagine, Southbank Centre’s annual Children’s Literature Festival, returns in February 2009, with an extensive nine-day programme of ticketed and free events at the heart of which is The Bibliomancer’s Dream, an enchanted library for children young and old, of flying poetry and divination on the Clore Ballroom floor.
Created by artist Alinah Azadeh with inspired design engineering by Willow Winston and Terence Williams, the installation takes the form of a set of twelve two metre high bookshelves arranged in a circle with writing desks attached. Following the ancient ritual of bibliomancy (the art of divining with books) visitors to the installation are invited to select a book at random and pick a line or verse in order to learn a truth or simply inspire the imagination. Writing their discovered text onto a giant length of ribbon, the wisdom seeker cranks up the scroll by means of a medieval-style pulley which spools through the bookshelf like flying poetry. Like some sort of primitive Ipod, the Bibliomancer’s Dream shuffles words and sentences around the library, allowing others to share the magic of randomly created poetry.
Used by many cultures throughout history and each with a preferred text by which to practice the tradition, bibliomancy has long been viewed as a way of seeking guidance or answering a question. The Ancient Greeks used Homer’s Iliad, letting the book fall open to select a page and Virgil’s Aeneid was a popular choice in the medieval period. The Bibliomancer’s dream will hold hundreds of books from mystical Persian poetry by Rumi and Hafiz to inspirational children’s classics like Maurice Sendak’s Where the wild things are and the magical adventures of Harry Potter as well as sacred texts, children’s picture books, poetry from around the world and tales of mythology.
Alinah Azadeh said: “The Bibliomancer’s Dream is a chance to share a playful, universal and poetic practice which I have drawn so much creative inspiration from for my artwork and which my mother brought alive for me as child through her love of the great Persian poets”.
For further press information on Southbank Centre please contact:
Jenny Brown on 0207 921 0926, email jenny.brown@southbankcentre.co.uk or
Miles Evans on 020 7921 0676, email miles.evans@southbankcentre.co.uk
Ticket Office 0871 663 2500 / Book online www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Or for more information about the artists visit www.alinahazadeh.com
Notes to Editors:
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. The Royal Festival Hall reopened in June 2007 following the major refurbishment of the Hall and redevelopment of the surrounding area and facilities.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar/productions/the-bibliomancer-s-dream-72f
