The Torre de Babel de Libros located at Plaza San Martin. (Below) Two of the 200 plus books the Philippines had contributed fro the project (photo from DFA website)The Philippine Embassy in Argentina said the Philippines participated in the "Torre de Babel de Libros" in Buenos Aires, a 25-meter high "tower" composed of 30,000 books in different languages.

The Philippines was the only Southeast Asian nation out of the 54 countries which participated in producing the masterpiece.

An average of 1,800 people viewed the tower at the Plaza San Martin in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, from May 12 to June 28 this year.

The tower is a masterpiece of renowned Argentine artist Marta Minujin.

Her past controversial works includes the Parthenon replica that she constructed in 1983. It was made up of books banned by the military junta at that time.

She said that the idea behind her latest work is "to unify all races through books."

The "Torre de Babel de Libros" is the first large-scale activity by the city government of Buenos Aires for the city's designation as UNESCO's "World Book Capital" for 2011.

Philippine books

The Philippine participation in the project was made possible through the joint efforts of the Embassy, the Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of American Affairs, and the National Book Development Board of the Philippines.

About 250 books in 13 Philippine languages as well as in English and Spanish were donated for the tower.

After the tower was dismantled, the books were collected by the Buenos Aires city government to be part of the initial collection of Argentina's first and only multilingual library scheduled to open in the capital this year. - VVP, GMA News