Eloquent art protest
An unusual edition of George Orwell's cult novel “1984” has been published in Sweden – a book that cannot be opened, The Stable reports.
The pages of the work are physically sealed, as if under a lock, and this gesture transformed the literary classic into an artistic manifesto against censorship and the suppression of freedom of speech.
The project was created as part of the Dewitt Isaac Library's “The Unreadable Book” initiative, a cultural space that collects books banned in different countries around the world. To implement the idea, the library teamed up with the creative agency BBDO Nordics. The result is a book-like art object that reminds us that freedom of expression is not a given, it must be defended.
“When a book is banned, it becomes a closed world. We literally sealed one of the most influential works of the 20th century to show what censorship looks like in a material dimension,” the project team explains.
Symbolic copies of “1984” have already been given to prominent artists — including writer Stephen King, Nobel laureate Gertie Müller, and a representative of the Swedish Academy, which is responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In this way, the initiators of the project seek to open a new discussion about freedom of art and speech in a world where censorship is increasingly taking the form not of prohibitions but of restrictions on access.
