The Distances We Forge

When you come into the presence of Cildo Meireles’s 2001 installation Babel, the first thing you are struck by is how big it is. It is a tower that looms above you. As you approach, you are also struck by the audio which emanates from it. This is because the tower is a tower of radios. Each separate radio that makes up the tower, set at the lowest possible still-audible volume, comes together to form a pillar of sound. These analogue radios pick up all possible radio stations in the area. Often they speak the same language, but the sheer number of radios means that the different dialogues meld together so as to become confused. As a result, there’s a sense of not knowing what you’re hearing and, therefore, an impression of the profusion of languages described in Genesis 11:9 is really brought to the fore. For Babel, aka Babylon (Hebrew: babel), is presented in the biblical account as resonating with the verb for confusion (Hebrew: bālal). This giant tower of radios is described by Meireles as an ‘archaeology of radio’ because at the bottom are the oldest and at the top the newest. Thus, the tower is also a history of the human technology of communication which has changed the world. The advent of radio meant that humanity’s separated state could in some sense be ‘reversed’. We could defy the limits of proximity and speak across vast distances; no need to shout or send smoke signals. A mere whisper was enough to span the miles. Thus, the great divides between people could seem to vanish and relationships could be forged across borders. And yet, when we experience Meireles’s monolith of audible history, it is hard to distinguish or understand each voice; hard to choose what to tune into. This pillar of confused sound is a reminder that Babel is a story about our failure to be able to communicate with each other. It is a potent monument to the tension of human relationships; the closeness we can experience and the distances we forge as our voice and ideas drown out others. Meireles’s Babel, then, can be seen as a call to enter into this confused dialogue, not by adding another voice, but by listening, however much of a challenge that might be.