In The Shadow Of Babel

Download or read book In the Shadow of Babel written by Renwick Heronimo and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2000, I participated in an international artist workshop entitled "La Llama" (The Flame), on the Hacienda Tacata Arriba located approximately one hundred kilometers away from Caracas in the valleys of Tuy, Venezuela. This was the year after "Los Deslaves" (The Washaways), where thousands of Venezuelans were washed into the Caribbean Sea by landslides caused by days of torrential rain. This intense workshop became a period of reflection during which I tried to make sense of the contingent relation between nature, culture and the socio-political dynamics at play in Venezuela's capital city. The dramatic scars I had witnessed on the Caribbean mountainside when landing at Maiquetia airport testified to the breakdown of the fragile balance in the relationship between man and nature. I realized for the workshop, a series of riverside installations that led to points of reflection within the tranquil beauty of the workshop site. These ephemeral installations - constructed alongside and within the Guaire River - were assembled with building materials found on the hacienda, echoing the precariousness of shantytowns. Each installation consisted of different found construction elements that were installed on locations which connected visually from one site to the next, leading one along the river into the forest. The last installation was a structure composed of three door panels that created a personal cabin right in the middle of the river, a space seemingly suspended in time, where one could ponder on questions provoked by this natural disaster.