The Lighthouse Park in Izola saw the opening of the “My Reading Room” art installation, through which Slovenia participates in the Europe Readr project. “Europe Readr invites us to read the European Union in all its diversity and interconnectedness. It is also an invitation to encourage reading as a way to improve our understanding of who we are, where we come from and where we are headed, while facing various social changes,” underlined Gašper Dovžan, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Europe Readr is the leading cultural and promotional project of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, conducted in cooperation with member states and European institutions around the world. “The Slovenian Presidency has decided to place the reading of books from all EU member states at the centre of the public space, both physical and digital. The twenty-seven literary works encourage readers around the world to think and talk about who we are, where we come from and about the kind of future in which we want to live,” said State Secretary Dovžan at the opening of the art installation in Izola. Along with it, the Europe Readr digital platform, offering free access to 27 literary works until the end of the year, was introduced to the Slovenian public by the project partners.
State Secretary Dovžan unveiled the artistic structure alongside Mayor of Izola Danilo Markočič, Member of the National Assembly Felice Žiža, President of the Slovene Cluster of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) Andreas Pawlitschek, and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture Alenka Fikfak. Together, they called for the promotion of social change through culture, especially reading, as one of the driving forces of critical thinking and active citizenship.
The Izola installation, created by the students of spatial, artistic and technical studies at the University of Ljubljana, is one of a series of projects in 24 countries around the world launched, during the Slovenian Presidency, by member states, under the auspices of national institutes for culture, to place Europe Readr in a public space – both physical and digital. A similar installation came to life yesterday in the Helsinki Central Library Oodi, and another will be unveiled in the Citizens’ Garden of the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday.
“My Reading Room” will be open every day from 10 am to 6 pm until September and will host events for all generations, organised by local, national and international actors. For the youngest, story hours will be held daily at 11 am and Tuesdays at 5 pm. Other events will be announced on the europereadr.eu website.
