– A library of living books

In Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine, performers memorize a book of their choice. Together they form a collection of living books. The books are passing their time in a library ready to be met by you. You choose a book you want to read, and the book takes you to a place in the library, in the cafe or on a stroll outside, while reciting its content.

The idea of the library of living books comes from the sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It is a vision of a future where books are forbidden because they are considered dangerous, a society where happiness is to be achieved in the absence of knowledge and critical thinking. The number 451 refers to the temperature at which paper starts to burn. In a community, an underground movement, people learn books by heart in order to reserve them for the future. 

In the process of learning a book by heart, the reader enters the role of the author and becomes the book. No matter how much you learn something by heart, you have to keep practicing, otherwise you will forget it again. The practice of memorization is a continuous process of remembering and forgetting. 

Mette Edvardsen is a dancer and choreographer who works interdisciplinary with video, books and writing. Time has fallen asleep… is an ongoing project started in 2010, and it has visited Black Box teater several times. Now it is presented again with new books.