Just launched – The Library of Absence, a new conceptual book by Conrad Shawcross

Made in collaboration with chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and Éditions Take 5, the book opens into an ever-changing landscape of light patterns, a proliferation of possibilities.

Also affectionately known as a suitcase of shadows or an umbrette, deriving from the Italian 'shadow', it is akin to a Dansette, the 1950s portable record player.

Alongside the release of The Library of Absence, Shawcross and Kramnik will be in conversation on Thursday 14 March 2024 at Maison Rousseau et Littérature in Geneva. They will be joined by Bodmer Foundation director Jacques Berchtold and Celine Fribourg to discuss expansion, infinity, art, chess, and literature.

The Library of Absence 'is an exploration of light and shadows, optics and perception,' writes Shawcross. 'I have created a light source that runs through perforated discs that rotate in reverse direction; their counter-rotating discs allow light to pass through their absences, creating an endless, immersive, and hypnotic effect. The 64 discs are perforated in different geometric patterns and through these I invite the viewer to experiment with almost unlimited projected configurations, an endless proliferation of possibilities.' 

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Photo by Richard Ivey