PAIRI DAEZA
Intervention
AMERICAN MEMORIAL LIBRARY (GER) 2016
The word paradise comes from the ancient Persian word combination Pairi Daēza, meaning a wall enclosing a garden. Pairi Daēza does not describe the shape of a paradise garden itself but an architectural structure, such as a fence or wall separating an invincible place from its environment. Historical records of paradise describe geologically isolated places like an island in the sea, a valley in the mountains, an oasis in the desert or the description of a wall of fire that encloses a place and makes access impossible. In various cultures, the shape of paradise has been described by writers and philosophers in books, visualized by artists in pictures or passed on orally to the next generations. Paradise is and remains a fictional and utopian place of longing.
18 transcriptions of the word paradise, from the first inscription in the royal Aryan Script cuneiform (522-486 BC) to the contemporary word paradise, applied to 18 windows of the reading room of the American Commemorative Library, Berlin.
This project was realizes in cooperation with the Institute of Iranian Studies and the Library of the Freie Universität Berlin.
Special thanks to Dr. Götz König (Freie Universität, Berlin, Institute of Iranian Studies) and Gity Salami and Karmann Haghmoradi (Library of the Freie Universität, Berlin, Dept. Antiquity / Orient) and Jens Lienig Bookbinding, Berlin.With the kind support of: Capital Cultural Fund, Embassy of the United States of America
18 chronological transcriptions of the concept of paradise
A book object with a black cover and two spines was laid out in the reading room of the American Memorial Library. Because it has two spines, it cannot be opened. The book object has no title.
Photograph: Uta Neumann