Sketching the transition
What happens when a national library relocates? While books, collections and workstations are moved to a new location, illustrator Johanna Rast captures this extraordinary transition in sketches. The result is a visual portrait of an institution at a moment of transition, between remembering and new beginnings.
The German word ‘Bibliothek’ comes from Greek. Back in antiquity ‘βιβλιοθήκη (biblio-thḗkē)’ described a ‘storage place for books’. The term itself therefore conveys the notion of a space where knowledge is collected, stored and disseminated. The history of the Swiss National Library (NL) is closely linked to such a pace: its building on Hallwylstrasse in Bern.
Compared with many other European national libraries, the NL is a young institution. It opened its doors in 1895 and has been at its current location since 1931. Its development is reflected in the library building, which was constructed in the early 1930s. Over decades, this is where not only collections have grown, but work processes, institutional traditions and many memories have also been created, which have left their mark on the building to this day.
A library in transition
Now this familiar space is changing. Due to extensive renovation work, the National Library will have to vacate its longstanding home for around a decade. Books, documents and collections are being packed up, workstations cleared, furniture moved and rooms emptied. This process reveals something that usually remains hidden in everyday life: a library is more than the sum of its collections – it is also about the people, work processes and structures that support them.
Moving to a temporary site on Monbijoustrasse in Bern is therefore more than a logistical and organisational challenge. It marks a profound change within an institution that has grown up over more than a century. At the same time, a new phase is beginning for the almost 100-year-old historic library building, which is to be converted into a forum of knowledge, exchange and encounter.
Illustrating a new chapter
Illustrator Johanna Rast turns her attention to exactly this moment of change in her sketches. From an observant and personal perspective she accompanies the National Library through the various phases of the move, from packing to transport and arriving at the new site. She therefore not only focuses on the big changes, but also on the unremarkable, everyday moments – handshakes, objects, emotions and encounters.
Gallery 1: Leaving the building
The cultural memory of the future
The project portrays the National Library as Switzerland's cultural memory in transition: an institution that carefully preserves Switzerland's history and at the same time, opens it up to new requirements and perspectives.
The illustrations themselves are also part of this change. They not only document this pivotal moment in the Swiss National Library's history, but will also become part of its extensive archive. As future objects in the collection, they will preserve the memory of this transformational process and add the perspective of a young generation of creative artists to the institution's collective memory. They will therefore help shape the library of tomorrow.