Presented in the famous Cour d’Honneur du Palais des Papes choreaographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet have joined forces with visual artist Antony Gormley to create “Babel 7.16” (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.
The piece has been performed nearly 150 times in cities all over the world for nearly 7 years
Especially for the 70th edition of the Festival d’Avignon, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet created a new version of their Olivier award winning piece Babel (words), and transposed it to the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes under the title of Babel 7.16. Ten new performers were added to the show, ten new characters making the story even more rich and complex.