Sidi Larbi Chekaoui, Damien Jalet and Anthony Gormley

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet joined forces with visual artist Antony Gormley to create Babel(words), a dance performance that explores language and its relationship with nationhood, identity and religion. Taking the tale of ‘The Tower of Babel’ as its starting point, Gormley’s 5 huge 3-dimensional frames hint at a nameless intersection in a faceless city near the borders that define a no man’s land. We watch as the action flows from private to public, intimacy to extroversion, and the individual to the collective – while choices of faith, space and community are made and we are reminded that to some the tale of Babel represents the gates to enlightenment, to others – chaos, confusion and conflict.

马林·比洛
マリンビューロー
말린 블로우
Μαλίν Μπάλοου
Elastic Bonding
This vertical version of Elastic Bonding was made site specifically for the Project Space at Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder in Trondheim. It was shown as part of Multiplié dance festival, an annual festival of contemporary dance in Norway. The project was a collaboration between Babel visningsrom and DansiT.

2020 Got Me Like
As COVID-19 speeds around the world and continues to shut down more cities, people begin to consume Internet culture in order to escape the apocalyptic anxiety in 2020, allowing Internet memes to go viral across the globe. Built upon social media, this work merges everyday sentiments with classical movie scenes to deconstruct the common imagination of “apocalypse” in entertainment industry. The video also incorporates the artist’s footage during protests, turning memes into public commentary and political satire. In this eventful year, meme does more than hijacking and decontextualizing meanings, it has become a form of silent revolt against the absurd.

On Framing Textile Ambiguities
The installation On Framing Textile Ambiguities is the output of a critical investigation on social and technical developments that led to the current local technological situation. As a series of machines, the installation presents itself as a group. They share the same thread and are made from the same components. Each machine is build around a frame, through which the thread is running. Though they are finding various meanings in the encoding due to differences in the widths of the frames.

Library
The library is a potent metaphor for knowledge that evokes images of organization, study, research and discovery. Libraries build relationships and connections and act as catalysts or laboratories for creative thoughts. Chun’s project is inspired in part by Jorge Luis Borges’ celebrated text, ‘The Library of Babel’ that compares the library to the universe with the grand idea that it is a repository for all knowledge and every individual truth. The universe is governed by an order that we can perceive only partially yet it evokes ideas of the infinite and the eternal – like matter it is neither created nor destroyed – it just is.

Babel

Il primo sinonimo di disordine che compare sul dizionario è babele, con la lettera minuscola
Du Zhenjun trasforma il mondo in una nuova torre di Babele, ma non pensate che questa Terra lo sia già? Non c’è già troppo disordine, ingiustizia e incomprensione?
Il primo sinonimo di disordine che compare sul dizionario è babele, con la lettera minuscola. E nemmeno a farlo apposta tutte le conseguenze della confusione voluta da Dio sono qui, come a giustificare questo aggettivo. Incarniamo la superbia e la supremazia sul mondo, lo stesso che Egli voleva che abitassimo.
Nelle immagini proposte da Du Zhenjun osserviamo una composizione standard: al centro è sempre presente un’interpretazione della Torre, varie forme, varie strutture, varie visioni. Poi tutt’intorno aleggia un’atmosfera grigia, l’atmosfera della realtà. Un ammasso di cose, persone e edifici. Sono parti di fotografie, o meglio di reportage giornalistici, di guerra e non solo.
L’origine della fonte di luce non la individuiamo, è nell’aria: tutto è illuminato, come nelle stampe composite di fine ottocento, antenate del fotomontaggio.

Babel
Le premier synonyme de trouble qui apparaît dans le dictionnaire est babel, avec une lettre minuscule
Du Zhenjun transforme le monde en une nouvelle tour de Babel, mais ne pensez-vous pas que cette Terre l’est déjà? N’y a-t-il pas déjà trop de désordre, d’injustice et d’incompréhension?
Le premier synonyme de trouble qui apparaît dans le dictionnaire est babel, avec une lettre minuscule. Toutes les conséquences de la confusion voulues par Dieu ne sont pas non plus ici, comme pour justifier cet adjectif. Nous incarnons la fierté et la suprématie sur le monde, la même qu’Il voulait que nous habitions.
Dans les images proposées par Du Zhenjun on observe une composition standard: au centre il y a toujours une interprétation de la Tour, des formes variées, des structures variées, des visions variées. Puis une atmosphère grise plane tout autour, l’atmosphère de la réalité. Une masse de choses, de personnes et de bâtiments. Ce sont des parties de photographies, ou plutôt de reportages journalistiques, de guerre et plus encore.
On n’identifie pas l’origine de la source lumineuse, elle est dans l’air: tout est éclairé, comme dans les estampes composites de la fin du XIXe siècle, ancêtres du photomontage.

Babel

The first synonym for disorder that appears in the dictionary is babel, with a lowercase letter
Du Zhenjun transforms the world into a new tower of Babel, but don’t you think this Earth already is? Isn’t there already too much disorder, injustice and misunderstanding?
The first synonym for disorder that appears in the dictionary is babel, with a lowercase letter. Nor are all the consequences of the confusion wanted by God here, as if to justify this adjective. We embody pride and supremacy over the world, the same one that He wanted us to inhabit.
In the images proposed by Du Zhenjun we observe a standard composition: in the center there is always an interpretation of the Tower, various shapes, various structures, various visions. Then a gray atmosphere hovers all around, the atmosphere of reality. A mass of things, people and buildings. They are parts of photographs, or rather of journalistic reports, of war and more.
We do not identify the origin of the light source, it is in the air: everything is illuminated, as in the composite prints of the late nineteenth century, ancestors of photomontage.

babel

Babel consists of around 800 radios of varying ages, from the beautiful, large, valve radios which make up the bottom tiers of the tower to the smaller mass-produced electronic radios of recent years which form its summit. By using radios of decreasing size from the floor to the ceiling, Meireles emphasises the perspective and the sheer height of the work.
Furthermore, Babel constitutes a survey of radios from the 1920s to the present day, which in turn presents what the artist has described as ‘an archaeological sample of events’. Due to the time-based nature of the medium of radio, no two experiences of this work are ever the same.