Applied Literature

Ivanka Beton is a Hungarian concrete artist and designer whose Hübler Applied Literature project struck a chord. Hübler Applied Literature is a collaboration between the designer and fine artist János Hübler. The series will be exhibited at Hidden Heroes 2010 this week in Milan, as an homage to Oscar Niemeyer and his most famous creation, Brasilia, city of concrete.

From the press release:

The Hübler is a creation using concrete – and books with a ‘concrete’ history – in various planimetrical surfaces. The absence of the books, due to their various dimensions, form different shapes of various depths and heights. The result concrete structure will not have a final shape, because, by using it, visitors can change the books or remove them.

The politically outdated books have been donated by the Research Institute Library of Radio Free Europe, the once active radio channel, sponsored by the US that fought against the Communism before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The table constitutes a monument to eternal knowledge – set in concrete- and it is a monument to the degeneration of information, to the immortality of the past and to its disintegration, while also offering an opportunity to reflect on the essence of the book.

The aesthetic reaction is not generated by the composition, rather by the abstraction of the artwork. Our aim here is not to show the technical virtuosity, the perfection of the design but the conscious use of the technology, with all of its rigid potentialities. The control over the material is obligate on a certain level, but not it is not the ultimate intention, or the main scope.
Inspiration of the material is in the focus of the fine artist János Hübler’s compositions, and in Ivanka’s entire work.