An experimental library that lets art fans take home a painting, sculpture or video work will open in Glasgow this weekend.
The Art Lending Library will allow people to borrow a work of contemporary painting, drawing, video art or sculpture and take it home for three days, in a new scheme that is part of the GI festival of contemporary art in the city.
Starting on Monday, works by leading contemporary names such as Graham Fagan, Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan, and Jacqueline Donachie and Roddy Buchanan, among more than 50 others, can be borrowed from the library, which is itself based in the Mitchell Library.
Organised by the city's Market Gallery and artists Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, the works of art are insured in the library and during transit, but artists have agreed to "trust" borrowers to look after their works while they are in their homes.
The organisers said they hoped the art library would prove to be "an egalitarian space where art can be borrowed and enjoyed by all sectors of society".
The Art Lending Library will be launched with a "Parade of Artworks" from George Square today at 11am.
Mr Bromwich said the library had been overwhelmed by support from artists who have donated works to the library.
Once a work of art has been "borrowed", it is specially packed and transported to its destination by removers, who will also install the work for the three-day period.
He said: "We have been delighted by the response from artists to the idea. It fits in with the idea of sculpture being a social enabler, that there is such a thing as what [the artist] Joseph Beuys called 'social sculpture' – that, essentially, art can affect society.
"The artists have handed over the works, and because we could not get insurance for the works once they are in people's houses, the artists have accepted that people have to be trusted with them.
"This is following the kind of egalitarian spirit with which this particular library, the Mitchell, was set up – that these things, literature and books and art, are for everybody, not just the elite."
The library is hosting just one of the many artistic events in the city for the festival, which begins at various venues this weekend.
Artists such as the Turner Prize-winning Richard Wright, the Scottish artists Karla Black and Adrian Wiszniewski, the award-winning filmmaker Rosalind Nashashibi and German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans are all taking part in the festival, which runs until May 7.
Library cards will be issued from today and borrowing will begin on Monday, April 23.
The online library catalogue will be available from April 9 at http://www.artlendinglibrary.org.uk.
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