By exchanging with the managers of the library on the constitution and renewal of the collection, Alexandru Balgiu wishes to promote and question the activity of weeding, in other words, the discarding of books that are too damaged, obsolete or simply not borrowed enough, to make room for new acquisitions. These books, which the media library gets rid off every year, constitute for the artist an inexhaustible creative resource from which he wishes to sensitize the participants of his workshops.

Alexandru Balgiu, a bibliophile artist, proposes to select books according to aesthetic, iconographic or even poetic criteria, in order to dissect them and constitute a new library of hybrid works through the activity of bookbinding.

As part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Ivry media library, Alexandru Balgiu is proposing two events to showcase these works. After a first selection of books in the reserves of the media library, he sets up a workshop matrix from which he films and produces a video that will serve both as a promotion of future workshops, and above all a tutorial intended to be disseminated on the social networks of Crédac and the city.
This video allows people who wish to activate this workshop at home, with their own books.

In October, Alexandru Balgiu invites a group of participants to follow him to explore the library’s reserves in order to select works awaiting weeding. During three sessions, he will work with the participants in the Crédac workshop on the creation of this second library, which will be presented during a public restitution in the Médiathèque d’Ivry.

• Workshop 1 at the Médiathèque d’Ivry on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 2 p.m
  Visit of the reserves and selection of works among the copies to be “weeded”
• Workshop 2 at Crédac on Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 2 p.m
  Cutting, pasting, binding
• Workshop 3 at Crédac at 2 p.m and at the Médiathèque d’Ivry on Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 5 p.m