Asya Marakulina

«Shop window of the local library» is a project, in which an outdoor showcase at a library in a residential area served as the exhibition space. The idea behind this curator’s intervention was to bypass the system of museums and galleries and introduce contemporary art practices to a wider audience; reflect on the different manifestations of everyday life in a place of its purest concentration. «Bibliography» (a selection of books on a given topic) was formed from the library funds on the topic of each exhibition.

For the «Working Hours» project, I used an outdoor shop window as my workshop. For ten working days during the library's opening hours, I went there and stayed inside the window. I acted according to the circumstances and intuitively created an exposition. My temporary workshop had a table, paper, tape, and markers. Day by day, I gradually filled the empty showcase with sketches and drawings on the glass. I recorded everything what happened in space and time conventionally limited by the library's working hours and its location.

Every day the huge windows of the outer showcase reflect hundreds of passers-by, rushing cars and cyclists, scurrying dogs, floating clouds, birds, trees, rain, sun and the lamps of the reading hall. As a result of the project, I made up an original "library of events" - an equally documentary and emotional cast of the everyday life at this place. Passers-by became full-fledged co-authors of the overall picture: both those who ran by for their matters, and those who lingered at the window a little longer expecting to be captured. The library staff also actively engaged in the process and made a documentary film about it.