Allora & Calzadilla
Jennifer Allora: * 1974 Filadelfia, EEUU.
Guillermo Calzadilla: * 1971 La Habana, Cuba.
Viven en San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Specters of Noon. 2019
Proyección láser, sonido; 4 minutos
Encargo de Sharjah Art Foundation
Sobre la obra
Since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla have produced work in sculpture, video, sound and performance, often in various combinations, to create sensual and immersive works of compound meaning.
Allora & Calzadilla's SB14 project, Specters of Noon (2019), explores the numinous qualities of midday, taking as the point of departure the short essay 'Le complexe de midi' [The noon complex], written by Roger Callois and published in the October 1936 edition of the surrealist journal Minotaur 9. Callois describes a precarious instance of perfect balance when 'the sun, at its zenith, divides the day into equal parts, each governed by the opposing signs of rise and decline'. This is when the blazing sun eliminates shadows, and ecstatic and delirious visions emerge. Engulfing these apparitions is the numb torpor and weariness brought on by the excessive heat of the sun.
Allora & Calzadilla's solar-powered laser light and sound projection emerges at this precise moment of solar noon and can be witnessed only for a few minutes before it disappears until the following day. The imaginary drift induced by the work conjures the daemonium meridianum of several poets and writers, whose works confront the archetypal theme of midday.
Text from the Sharjah Biennial 14 Guidebook
© 2019 Sharjah Art Foundation
Gallery 1: 7 participantes. Look for Me All Around You, curaduría de Claire Tancons. 7 marzo - 10 junio 2019, EAU.