Updated on May 25th, 2013
The children of Abraham
An art installation about the dogmas of the monotheism
With the sculpture FUNDAMENTALISM
Background
For many years people have asked me why I haven’t made
an art installation that grasps the great questions about the growing influence
of religious dogmas in our society. The newspaper Jyllands-Posten tried to get
my backup on the Muhammad cartoons - but I refused, because I believe the
cartoons were not an attempt at artistic interpretation and dialogue, but a
project seeking to mob and provoke Muslims and this would act as a sort of
‘hate speech’ and stigmatization.
Since 2003 I’ve been pondering an idea of creating a
sculpture installation, which deals precisely with this issue and I believe
that now is the time to give a more balanced artistic bid on this discussion.
This project is not anti-religious. Religion is
probably deep down humanity's attempts to find the meaning of existence.
Religions are not fundamentally bad for humanity; on the contrary, all the
three mono-theistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, often had a
good impact on communities, particularly the requirement for mercy to the poor
and other basic guidelines to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
There are many beautiful words and rules in the
monotheistic books, but there are also many nonsensical and callous
rules belonging to a medieval civilization. If you take everything in the
religious writings literally and strictly obey the wording, the people and their
communities risk to get heartless and callous.
It is important for me to create a dialogue based on the assumption
that the books are not essentially wrong, but to blame are those who choose to
interpret them headless, without regard to the progress of human civilization
and increasing tolerance among people. You can easily find a humane interpretation
of the books if you want to take this approach. But it is equally feasible to
defend an inhuman interpretation of the same books. Precisely this is the point
of “The
Children of Abraham”.
I named the project “The Children of Abraham” because the three
religions all recognize Abraham as their common ancestor. One could say that
the disagreements between these religions are some sort of family fight among the
children of Abraham.
Jens Galschiot 2013
Sculpture description / Idea
The
idea is to create a monumental bronze sculpture consisting of the letters of
the word FUNDAMENTALISM.
The individual
letters are 2.5 meters tall and erected in a large closed circle with a
circumference of 9 meters, and they will be put on a 90 cm plinth. A small
opening at one of the letters is the only entrance to the inside of the
installation.
Each letter of the sculpture is built up of
religious books from ‘the people of the book – monotheism’, Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
These religions are known as “the people of
the book” because they have the holy writings as a basis of their religions.
The sculpture is built from copper copies of these books, respectively:
• The Quran
• The Christian Bible (Old and
New Testaments)
• The Jewish Torah
The books are stacked on each other to form individual
letters, but separately so that one character is built of Qurans, another of
Bibles, and a third of the Torah. To avoid a barren discussion about blasphemy,
I have chosen not to make castings of original religious books, but to
model the books by hand, with real religious books of all sizes and forms used
as models.
They are
stacked irregularly, so the sculpture appears with a slightly shaky expression.
The installation will consist of more than 8,000 books of wax, all of them
transformed to copper.
As there
are only 14 letters and 3 religions, one religion will have only 4 letters – in
return it will have some of the bigger letters.
The whole construction of letters is placed on
a 90 cm high plinth of steel coated with dark sheets of rolled copper. The
plinth forms a circle with a diameter of 9 meters.
Integrated in the plinth, there will be
installed 28 big flat screens, two for each letter, one on the inside of the
circle, and one on the outside.
On the outside of the circle directly on the
individual letters there will continuously be displayed on the screens
quotations from the book of which each letter is constructed. The texts will be
in the original language and in Danish (or the language of the country where
the installation is exhibited).
On the outside of the sculpture the ‘good’
quotes will be displayed, those expressing a humane approach to issues such as
reconciliation, forgiveness, women's rights, care for the weak, equality,
wisdom, beauty, compassion, Faith, Hope and Charity, etc.
On the inside of the circle is engraved the
corresponding negation of a humane attitude found in the same book, of which
the letter is composed, for example. 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth', that
sinners must be subject to cruel punishment (stoning, amputation of limbs),
persecution and intolerance towards religious, sexual and other minorities, the
woman must obey her husband, be silent in public gatherings, must wear veils,
etc.
The integration of the 28 big flat screens in the
sculpture makes it possible for the spectators to read the quotes in their own
language, and the texts can be seen from far away. Inside the circle the
‘bombardment’ with religious quotes will have an overwhelming impact.
There is only one entrance to the interior of
the installation: a small hole through one of the letters (the T) above
which a sign says 'Welcome'. When you come into the circle, one can only get out
of the same opening, but here is a sign saying 'NO EXIT'.
The quotes/the books
The
quotes from the holy books are chosen by the artist himself, in cooperation
with experts (for example religious historians). With their professional
expertise they can guarantee, that the quotes are authorized from recognized
translations.
The
quotes will be displayed on the screens installed in the plinth. The quotes
will have the source, the quote in the original language (Aramaic, Arabic,
Hebrew, and Ancient Greek) and a local translation, for example Danish for the
exhibition in Denmark. At the moment there are 400 quotes per religion, 1.200
different quotes all in all.
Light and sound: The sculptures will be
illuminated by LED light strips (RGB washer), that will be integrated in the
plinth. The can be programmed to do a slow light changeover. The sculpture
might get sound installed through the flat screen speakers.
Size: Height 340 cm (including the plinth), 9 m in
diameter. Estimated weight: 10 tonnes. It is important that the sculpture has
a size and monumental radiance to emphasize that there are forces at work that
make an individual insignificant and could easily destroy it.
The religious books
in the sculpture must exude age, weight and significance. The sculpture will
have a radiation as a 'Stonehenge' of books or similar to library in The Name
of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
Vandalism security: The sculpture should be put up
in public, without guards and insurance. Therefore there have been
comprehensive engineering calculations on the construction, to protect it from
weather and vandalism, and safety at the installation, exhibition and
transportation. Likewise, there will be web based surveillance cameras
installed in the construction.
Symbolism
The symbolism can
of course be interpreted differently, but here are some of my suggestions:
• The crucial point
is not the literal wording of the religious books, but rather how they are
interpreted and by whom.
• All religions
contain contradictory texts and could be used to justify both the most brutal
and the noblest deeds.
• Many people get
caught by the beautiful quotes, but end up suffering the bad ones.
• You must break
the rule (the plate 'NO EXIT') to get out of the circle, which symbolizes that
when you have only entered into a fundamentalist interpretation of religion, it
is hard to get out because the exit would be an offence against 'God's rules'.
Publication and exhibition of the art installation
The first Exhibition of “The Children of Abraham”. will be arranged in
connection to prestigious art institutions (art museums, exhibition halls, art
fairs etc.). Thereafter the installation will make a tour in the public space
and various exhibition sites in Denmark and abroad.
Website / Facebook / Twitter, etc.:
An interactive website will be established with description of the sculpture
and the many quotations from the books where you can download, sort and search.
At the same time, user pages are created where you can debate about the
sculpture and fundamentalism. You can also sign up for an email list where you
will be informed about the project’s development and on-going dialog.
Mail and fax campaign: A comprehensive information
campaign will be launched in connection with the first exhibition. The cornerstone
of the campaign will be Jens Galschiot’s database with e-mails and fax-numbers
of 150,000 contacts to the press, ngo’s, art institutions, galleries, religious
organizations and individuals.
Catalogue / book: the whole art installation
is described in a book, both in printed and E-book edition. The contents are:
•
All quotations from religious books which are
displayed on the flat screens. They are categorized and arranged according to
their context.
•
Photos and description of the installation.
•
Statements from high-ranking religious leaders and
eminent persons who relate to the sculpture and to the discussions about the
literal interpretation of the books.
Poster: There will be published a poster in DIN A3 size,
with pictures of the sculpture installation and a text on the back where the
project is explained. The posters are distributed free to the public.
Dialogue component
This topic is
obviously hazardous to work with and there is great danger that the project
goes astray ending up in infertile and shrill debates. It can easily be
exploited by the fundamentalists or the political right / left-wing to promote
their views. This obviously cannot be avoided completely, even though Jens
Galschiot who is the artist behind the installation is known to have a balanced
relationship with all three religions. There will therefore from the outset of
the project be taken various initiatives and actions to help ensure a good and
open dialogue, without taking the sting out of the art installation and the
idea behind it.
Working with religious leaders and
prominent persons: We are attempting to establish cooperation / dialogue
with religious leaders and prominent persons from all three religions, who
could support the idea that religious books must be interpreted symbolically
and not literally. We hope that this cooperation will make it possible to use
this installation as a platform for an open and unbiased discussion and
dialogue about the consequences of fundamentalism. A sort of support group can
contribute to a constructive debate about 'FUNDAMENTALISM'.
Public dialogue: We seek to establish a direct
cooperation with institutions, TV and other press, who could be interested in
supporting and creating a fruitful and differentiated dialogue about this
subject.
Marathon debate: A curator has come up with the
idea, of inviting a group of religious people to live in- and outside the
sculpture for 24 hours. The 24 hours would be spiced up a bit with introductory
presentations to be discussed the whole day. It will all be videotaped and cut
for a number of TV-stations. Some sort of reality TV, now with meaningful
content.
Status, May 2013
The letters A-A-M-M-N-N-I and L are all done, and put
up in one of the exhibition halls at the workshop.
There are now 5 stages still left to work on, on the
FUNDAMENTALISM project:
-
Build-up and casting of the remaining 6 letters.
-
Choosing the religious quotes, and experimenting with
the screen-project of the quotes.
-
Calculations and building the plinth – experimenting
with the surface of the plinth, lighting, screens and further adjustments.
-
Establishing contact to different places for
exhibition, and establishing support groups for the project, and so on.
-
Finding financial support to finish the sculpture.
Updates available at www.aidoh.dk/fundamentalism
Gallery: www.GalleriGalschiot.dk
Portrait of Jens Galschiot
(CV): http://www.aidoh.dk/CV
General
information: www.aidoh.dk
Jens
Galschiot - Banevaenget 22 - DK-5270 Odense N - Denmark
Phone: +45 6618 4058 - aidoh@aidoh.dk - www.aidoh.dk
