Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine

In the info leaflet METTE EDVARDSEN >PROJECTS 2002-2010 the following is written about the production Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine: 

"For Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine a group of people/performers memorize a book of their choice. Together they form a library collection consisting of living books. The books are passing their time in a library, sitting in chairs, walking around, talking together, looking out of the window, reading in paper-books from the shelves, ready to be consulted by a visitor. The visitors of the library choose a book they would like to read, and the book brings its reader to a place or setting in the library, in the cafeteria, or for a walk outside, while reciting its content (and possibly valid interpretations).

The idea for this library of living books comes from the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. It is a future vision of a society where books are forbidden because they are considered dangerous, that happiness must be obtained through an absence of knowledge and individual thought. The number 451 refers to the temperature at which book paper starts to burn. As books are forbidden in this society, an underground community of people learns books by heart in order to preserve them for the future. 

Books are read to remember and written to forget.

To memorise a book, or more poetically 'to learn a book by heart', is in a way a rewriting of that book. In the process of memorising, the reader for a moment steps into the place of the writer, or rather he/she is becoming the book. Maybe the ability to learn a whole book by heart is relative to what book you choose, the time you invest, and perhaps your skills. But, however much or well you learn something by heart you have to keep practicing it otherwise you will forget it again. Perhaps by the time you reach the end you will have forgotten the beginning. Learning a book by heart is an ongoing activity and doing. There is nothing final or material to achieve, the practice of learning a book by heart is a continuous process of remembering and forgetting."

Special thanks to: Dubbelspel (STUK Kunstencentrum & 30CC, Leuven), Kaaitheater/ Brussels, Sarah Vanhee

Supported by: Norsk Kulturråd, Fond for Lyd og Bilde, Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere, Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs/MFA (travel grant/performing arts), Flemish Authorities, Step Beyond

Travel grants title: Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine is a sentence from a book by Alexander Smith appearing in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953).

SOURCES:

Edvardsen, Mette. E-mail: 03.09.2016

Hegdahl. Anna, E-mail, 06.11.2017.

Mette Edvardsen's private archive, donated by Mette Edvardsen, 11.12.2010/21.09.2015

Program for the festival Kortreist Dansefestival for 2017, 29.11.2017.