"Ecotopian Library" sculptural installation
“The library will endure; it is the universe. As for us, everything has not been written; we are not turning into phantoms. We walk the corridors, searching the shelves and rearranging them, looking for lines of meaning amid leagues of cacophony and incoherence, reading the history of the past and our future, collecting our thoughts and collecting the thoughts of others, and every so often glimpsing mirrors, in which we may recognize creatures of the information.” ― Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel
Ecotopian Library is a long-term project that stems from the belief that art and ecotopian thought can be part of cultivating systemic social change.
Ecotopian Library at the CUAM, Boulder, Colorado curated by Sandra Firman
The Ecotopian Library's toolkit combines disciplines of forestry, botany, art, literature, and the sciences asking artists, scholars, librarians, neighbors, scientists, indigenous knowledge holders, and writers to contribute stories, objects, digital files, experiences, or books to build a toolkit for regenerative futures within climate change.
The Ecotopian Library was supported by the University of Colorado Museum of Art (CUAM), and was on view at the CUAM through July 2020.
An Ecotopian Library "Reading Room" made entirely of objects was at the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador in December 2021 and later in Arizona State University's Contemporary Art Museum curated by Mark Dion and Heather Lineberry. In the spring of 2023, it moved to the Thomas Cole Historic Site in the Catskills. Since it is place-based and it travels, it accumulates tools as it moves. It is also permanently on view at the Hudson Area Library in Hudson, NY.
In 2022, the Museum London hosted the Ecotopian Library in London, Ontario, curated by Patric Mahon and Jeff Thomas. The London Public Library carried an Ecotopian Library section inspired by the exhibition.
The Ecotopian Library can also be seen at the Anchorage Museum in Anchorage, AK.
Visit the website: EcotopianLibrary.com