Having the idea of the ‘Musee imaginaire’ by Andre Malraux as a point of departure, Yiannis Melanitis and Geert Vermeire are creating a "museum space" with their own artworks and texts.

Nine works of Yiannis Melanitis symbolize and refer to a variety of styles in the Western history of art, while each work of art is linked with a particular book from the history of literature. Next to the works of art, nine original texts written by Geert Vermeire for this exhibition are presented visually.

The use of texts as visual works of art shifts the view of the visitor. The National Library of Brasilia is an almost empty library, defined by some people as a ‘zen’ library, almost without books, a hub and a centre for digital and virtual knowledge. This exhibition is in fact a site specific installation, a mirror that gives depth to the space and reflects the place.

The title of the exhibition is the title of one of the art works in the exhibition and it also refers to the book ‘Blindness’ by the Portuguese writer Jose Saramago; a book about a society in which everybody becomes blind and at the same time physical contact is prohibited. Persons, not only lose touch with their eyes but with their whole bodies. The exhibition wants to reflect upon a library as a place where you can touch and be touched, a space of imagination and experience.

Geert Vermeire , curator