Utopia's Dream
Audio installation, 2014
Imagine an invisible city called Asja. A woman, to whom both a world-famous philosopher and a local poet have dedicated their works. "Naples" (Neapel) was co-written with Walter Benjamin in autumn 1924. Anna Lācis is perhaps Latvia’s only connection to world philosophy – the rest is merely provincialism. Imagine a room with the low ceiling, characteristic of Kafka’s works, you are surrounded by the hum of voices in various languages, Le bruissement de la langue – a utopia of language. Any coincidence with the idea of Roland Barthes is accidental yet incisive. Hippodamus creates a regular plan of Piraeus and ponders on the ideal city, while Plato describes the mythic Atlantis, initiating the visions of ideal cities, so popular during the Renaissance. England is an island facing the continent, and New Atlantis is on an island, while Herbert Wells speaks of "ships of state". No anti-utopia – merely dream and kitsch. 74 years since Benjamin’s death, yet his take on history and future (and Kafka, and surrealism, and Asja) is just as incomprehensible as Ancient Greek. The hum of language..., while somewhere in the background there is meaning.
Gratitude: Ilze Rūmniece, Līva Pētersone, Māra Ķimele, Janin Walter.
Artists' Bios:
Reinis Dzudzilo. Stage designer. Born in 1987.
Jānis Taurens. Lives with his wife and daughter, reads books. Writes and reads lectures on philosophy, aesthetics, contemporary art and architecture.