From "Black-Yellow-White" The Second Session of Imagining the Book Biennale The title of this year's session is Desert Inside-Out, indicating a change in the Library's orientation, as it focused in the past on the West and Middle East . This session aims at initiating a dialogue with desert culture and African culture in the light of imagining the book. It will address African identity in two areas: African artists who live within their societies and are influenced by their cultures; and African artists who live far from their societies and have interacted with other cultures. During the Biennale, Africans who live in the desert, and others who live in the middle and the south of the continent, will interact with Arabs, westerners and Asians in a utopian environment, achieving the artists' long awaited dream of meeting without mediators. Hundreds of the world's most prominent intellectuals, artists, and theorists will participate in the Biennale, sharing visions and discussing innovations. They have been selected from Egypt, the Arab world, Africa, Europe, Japan, and the USA. As we discuss the future of the book, we cannot help but reminisce about the role of the book in our ancestors' lives: keeping diaries and memoirs, recording feelings and emotions, initiating or opposing values and beliefs, interpreting phenomena, recording inventions, and writing mysterious and magical inscriptions and religious doctrines. The journey started with engraving, drawing, and painting, and developed into writing on papyrus. This was followed by the invention of wood-pulp paper, and the production of scrolls and manuscripts that were inscribed, colored, embellished with gold, covered, and preserved. The invention of the manual press was a great turning point, followed by the mechanical press and the electronic media used at present. The book was, and still is, the bearer of human conscience, thought, memories, and emotions. It is now facing a drastic turning point that will renew its mission. During the Biennale, we will be able to observe artists as they work, and will see the outcome of their labor, living and experiencing with them the moments of creation and achievement. Mostafa El Razzaz |