chanan de lange: ex libris

‘ex libris’ by chanan de lange on show at the tel aviv art museum image © designboom

designboom has just returned from israel, where we were taken on a ‘design tour’, organized by kinetis, of the creative initiatives that are occurring in the cities of jerusalem and tel aviv. one our stops was the new wing of the tel aviv art museum designed by cambridge-based architects preston scott cohen. see designboom’s previous coverage of the construction and completion of the new wing.

wide view of the library installation image © designboom

currently on show in one of the galleries dedicated to showing work by israeli artists is a sculptural installation entitled ‘ex libris’ by chanan de lange. the works of de lange, a lecturer at bezalel academy of arts and design in jerusalem, reinterpret the personality and form of raw materials in order to fashion designs promoting humanity and accessibility.

in ‘ex libris’, two semi-circular structures flow outwards in three angles, each comprised of several metal poles, stabilizing the installation. the shelves are constructed from reused studio boards and drawing tablets from bezalel academy and have the capacity to house up to 20,000 books. de lange, who has designed several libraries through out his career, raises the question of functionality and comfort in this piece, by organizing the structure in a circular plan with books laid down horizontally in this storage method. publications may be selected from ‘ex libris’ without disrupting the others due to the tilted, cradling nature of the shelving system. the library design provides a more accessible floor plan in which patrons may move about the fluid space, circulating the units without navigating corners in this free-flowing, novel repository.

view from inside the semi-circular structure of the sculpture image © designboom