Submitted by Yuko Nishizawa
There are countless books about great philosophies, religions, ways of improving oneself and relationships in the societies. All of them are designed to make us feel better and enlightened. Despite all the available guidance, it's still not easy to find values that suit us perfectly or that make a sense in all cultures. In fact, we learned recently in SOC-101 that we must be mindful because those sources are biased on some levels. At the same time, we must rely on information created and filtered by others. So how do we know what information is true and trustworthy?
The attached image from the magazine AZURE, July/Aug,2003 issue, caught my eye. It's a mini coliseum made with books on religion and philosophy as construction material, like piled up bricks. The spines of books have fancy titles like "Dialog with Socrates", "Joyous Freedom with God", "Buddha's Wisdom",etc. Each book presents perspectives of things that are supposed to be good for people and society. We see all different colors and thickness in the exterior, but the interior becomes a wall of white paper. To me, this illustrates that inside, we are all the same. We are all human, want to be at peace and pure, like those white pages. The book coliseum was installed and exhibited at the 2001 International Contemporary Art Bienniale in Florence by architect team from Finland.
The book coliseum represents the relation between outer and inner worlds.
There are countless books about great philosophies, religions, ways of improving oneself and relationships in the societies. All of them are designed to make us feel better and enlightened. Despite all the available guidance, it's still not easy to find values that suit us perfectly or that make a sense in all cultures. In fact, we learned recently in SOC-101 that we must be mindful because those sources are biased on some levels. At the same time, we must rely on information created and filtered by others. So how do we know what information is true and trustworthy?
The attached image from the magazine AZURE, July/Aug,2003 issue, caught my eye. It's a mini coliseum made with books on religion and philosophy as construction material, like piled up bricks. The spines of books have fancy titles like "Dialog with Socrates", "Joyous Freedom with God", "Buddha's Wisdom",etc. Each book presents perspectives of things that are supposed to be good for people and society. We see all different colors and thickness in the exterior, but the interior becomes a wall of white paper. To me, this illustrates that inside, we are all the same. We are all human, want to be at peace and pure, like those white pages. The book coliseum was installed and exhibited at the 2001 International Contemporary Art Bienniale in Florence by architect team from Finland.
The book coliseum represents the relation between outer and inner worlds.
The various concepts exit in cultures, the outer world, but the ultimate goal is to have a peace in ourselves, the inner world. The worlds are not separate, they co-exist. We seek peace and happiness in the all culture no matter who we are, where we come form or what we believe.
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
("Imagine" by John Lenon, 1971)
There is a sad coda to this coliseum installation. It was destroyed within a day when every book was stolen by local thieves. Photographs of the thefts showed that the majority of the pilferers were largely average local citizens.
I find it most interesting when different philosophies, religions or cultures tell the same message in their own way.
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