THE
POP-UP BOOKSHOP
So called
pop-up shops are increasingly common but how many of them truly pop-up? The
Pop-up Bookshop arrives in a city at dawn, drawn on a cart by a team of
bicyclists. Its unfolding takes place with only pigeons and a handful of the
lucky as audience. The shop looks, at first, like an enormous wooden book. It
takes a troupe of four booksellers performing various gymnastics just to begin
to flip it open, but as it unfolds various clockwork mechanisms and pulleys
come into play. The shelves rise up like the uncrumpling of an accordion, a
counter emerges. A window and a door spring into place, although there are no
walls or roof. The books are pulled out of their hiding places, from underneath
flaps and between folds, and are placed onto the shelves. When the door opens
with the tinkling of a bell the shop is ready for business.