Recycling books has never been so monumentally beautiful — and ultimately lasting — as when 30,000 volumes were assembled to create the “Tower of Babel.”
An 82-foot-tall tower made out of thousands of books — 30,000 such “bricks” to be precise? We can see book lovers’ eyes light up with glee in view of all the reading material, only to be extinguished by the thought of such a waste. But bookworms and environmentalists can relax and rejoice! Not a single volume was harmed in the process of building this massive structure. On the contrary.
The “Tower of Babel,” as it is officially called, was the brainchild of acclaimed Argentinean artist Marta Minujín. Minujín devised the tower in celebration of Buenos Aires being chosen as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2011 World Book Capital. The used raw materials were donated by libraries and readers eager to help, as well as more than 50 embassies.
The 30,000 books, in dozens of languages, were draped over a seven-story metal scaffold structure, which stood from May 7 to May 28, 2011. For nearly a month, this “Babel of Books” was a place where many languages flowed together, allowing visitors from even the remotest locations on Earth to find a book in their language.
