A nomadic library
For the moment the Living Library has no fixed home. It has been wandering around the buildings of the village and the Gut of Stolzenhagen since the start of the project in 2011… Adapting to the spaces like a chameleon.
Eventually the archives are expected to find a nest in a house which is now being renovated to become a guest and seminar house in the heart of the village. This site used to be the former grocery store and bakery of the village and so has a strong historical community aspect to it, that Saliq Savage, the developer of this new project is willing to cultivate. Right now the books are in the Speicher building, situated one story above the kitchen and one below the small dance studio of Ponderosa. The P.O.R.C.H. participants are sleeping between it's shelves. |
2011 - Bits and pieces
This was the library in 2011 when located in the small studio… Later in the season Kristof Deneke hosted the library in the Green Lab down in the gardens. That summer was the library's first pilot year. Peter Pleyer, Stephanie Maher, Sandra Wieser and Books On The Move lent their own books to the library for the seasons of 2011-2013.
2012 - Dust
In 2012, Frank Willens hosted the library in a glass container built out of old windows in his former construction site. The main users of the space during that summer were the P.O.R.C.H. participants, the visual artist Anne-Sophie Malmberg as well as the teachers participating in the IDOCDE gathering which took place in Ponderosa during that summer.
2013 - Bodies books and zines
The library moved back to the small studio in 2013 and hosted the Bodies & Books lab during the P.O.R.C.H. Training Module as well as the first publication of a Zine edited by the P.O.R.C.H. participants Kb Thomason and Jillyane Hunter.
2014 - More books
Ponderosa launched a crowd-funding and was able to raise 5000€ to purchase books and DVDs and the former grocery store of the village was bought by Saliq Savage, dancer and longterm supporter of Ponderosa. Saliq offered part of the space to host the Living Library in the winter and summer of 2014 before the present renovations started. The plan is to have the books back in that beautiful and central location as soon as the constructions will be over in 2016-2017. For the official opening of the Living Library in March 2014, Peter Pleyer performed a solo in front of a wide audience of villagers and Berliners. ECITE, P.O.R.C.H. as well as the dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer were active users of the library during that season. A series of interviews from the former shop keepers was led by Shelley Etkin, Gretchen Blegen, Katelyn Stiles and Sandra Wieser. Jen Polins launched the Ponderosa Post and a second Zine of collages by the P.O.R.C.H. participants was published.
2015 - Something about not getting too precious…
This year we don't want to be so precious with our books. Yes it was work and money and time to get them over and keep track of them but we still claim practice, action and physical disruption over the dead objects and theories. We love the writings and the History of our community. But that's not all… This summer is about rewriting, overwriting, unmaking, referring, deferring, reclaiming, deviating, rephrasing, erasing, sabotaging, oversizing, unbuttoning, unfolding, submitting, collaging, transferring, translating, transposing, irritating, dilapidating, recreating!