BOOKtiga Festival of Second-Hand Books 2012 – The importance of (being) a margin

The poster advertises an international fair for new and second-hand books that aims to promote the love of reading books and thus popularise books again. The theme of the festival in 2012 was the marginalisation of libraries in modern urban environments. Since such a non-profit festival is usually shadowed by other more popular, commercial and attended events, and since the festival promotes the value of using second-hand items, it seemed logical not to buy dedicated ad space, but instead to use the ad spaces taken by other, more profitable events. Thus, an attention-grabbing ribbon was designed and applied around the edges of already put-up posters, creating a visual frame that symbolises the marginality of the book fair. This way the festival loudly makes its position regarding other events clear, however, without wanting to cancel or cover them, but simply by becoming an integral part of them. The BOOKtiga Festival presents itself as a margin of the central event, as the margin has always been a place that marks the important things. Statement by the jury »This work impresses by its subversive character. It was conceived not as a poster but a ribbon turning other posters into backgrounds for its own message. This kind of guerrilla tactic of occupying public space was realised in a highly sophisticated and humorous manner.«