The Book Worm (House of Book pavilion) is an experimental public art installation designed by architect and artist Nuru Karim. The 120 feet long and 40 feet wide Book Pavilion will be installed at the premises of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai) in collaboration with their newly opened Children’s Museum, for the month of November – December, 2019. Priyasri Art Gallery is supporting this endeavour with the aim to foster a fondness for reading in the youth and encourage curated reading content for children, promoting the tactile experience of reading books in this day and age of hand-held devices and digital content.
This book pavilion will be open to the public and will house books for children (up to age 18) donated by various institutes and individuals. The books will be screened at the Children’s Museum at the CSMVS before it’s installed on the Book Pavilion. The entire pavilion is entirely handmade, fabricated using recycled plywood. It can be dismantled and packed as its deployable, fabricated from a modular set of components and reassembled on another site post the duration of the exhibition, thus making it environmentally friendly.
“We are making it an interactive installation, as it’s essentially a community building effort. The book collection was made possible by the efforts of various people, and the installation is designed to be deployable in both urban and rural centres to spread the message of empowerment through education. We will also be encouraging volunteers to set up the pavilion, in an added effort at community building,” said Priyasri Patodia.
“Public art installations have become very important. However, they also call for huge funding and community support. The initial amount for this project was funded by Nuru Karim and I. The idea spiralled out whilst I was supporting the CSMVS on another project, lighting up the museum façade and other spaces in their lawn. The Director of the museum, Mr. Sabyasachi Mukherjee told me of his interest in a [possible] children’s library at the museum. I shared the thought with Nuru, and that’s how the Book Worm dream began to take shape. We hope to bring more people forward and fund this, the first of its kind, Children’s Museum of Books set in collaboration with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS). While we have already been collecting books through donors big and small, to set up the Book Pavilion and facilitate the process of setting it up, dismantling and traveling with it to rural India would require further funding. We look forward to encouraging, enlightening and educating more and more people through books”, Priyasri Patodia elaborated on the event.
The exhibit will be on view from Nov8 till the end of December.
