L’inachèvement en mutation: Resémantisations de la Tour de Babel dans l’art contemporain
The Ever-Changing Incompleteness: Resemantization of the Tower of Babel in Contemporary Art

Summary/Abstract: The present study draws on the multiple types of resemantization the Tower of Babel embodies in contemporary art representations. The analysis of these representations brings to the fore phenomena of multiplicity or, on the contrary, paradoxical aims to unicity. (Re)babelizations in art are strongly connected with nomadism and rhizomatic phenomena, as described by Deleuze and Guattari. Multiplicities take the form of the proliferation of details, as well as of a prevalence of the part as compared to the whole, the result being the fact that there are works of art made entirely of parts. The babelization phenomena can also be interpreted taking as a starting point of the idea of influence, developed by Harold Bloom in The Anxiety of Influence. Finally, some of the Babelian projects are built upon the paradox of the unique language, unique vision, specific to totalitarian systems, which represents a peculiar case in the history of the Tower of Babel artistic representations.

• Details
• Contents