Hyper Book. “Angelica and Medoro” by Luis de Góngora

In her work »Hyper Book. ‘Angelica and Medoro’ by Luis de Góngora«, South Korean artist Airan Kang stacks transparent synthetic resin casings in the form of books to create a tower-like sculpture. The casings are fitted with colored LED lights, which are programmed to change color, luminescence, and intensity. All of the spines of the books in the sculpture bear the name of the author Luis de Góngora and the book title written vertically. The LED writing running horizontally over the respective cut edges of the books provides changing citations from the book.

Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627) was a Spanish Baroque poet and dramatist. The poem »Romance de Angélica y Medoro« (1602) tells the story of the Asian Princess Angélica at the court of Charlemagne, who falls in love with the Saracen knight Medoro and elopes with him to China.

This sculpture by Airan Kang is part of her »Digital Book Project«, for which the artist traveled the world to visit bookshops and libraries. The books she found she replicated for her electronically luminescent sculptures of transparent synthetic resin. In her works Kang draws attention to the overlap between physical and virtual worlds and highlights the sharing of knowledge in the digital age: How will we store knowledge and thoughts in the future and how will we share them with others?