Project Babel
mid April – May 23, 2024
Reception May First Friday, 6-8pm
Project Babel is an international printmaking collaboration project. 335 printmakers from 40 studios – including Constellation Studios – in 19 countries created together an artwork based on the painting “the Great Tower of Babel” (1563) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
The idea of the project is to share the original image of the Tower in segments. The participants remake their shared segments in their own ways using different printmaking techniques. Finally all the works are gathered as a new Tower. Each artist’s segment (chosen in a lottery) is 5″ x 7″ (13x17cm), and the gathered image is around 100″ x 126″ (230x320cm). The result of the project was first exhibited in Galleria Ratamo (Jyväskylä, Finland) from December 14th 2023 to January 14th 2024.
Project Babel’s goal is to gather printmakers from all over the world and build new connections between studios. Collaboration allows us to create artwork made with diverse printmaking methods and styles. The process is interesting in its unpredictability; the result emerges only when we gather all our work together and see how it differs from the original image in many interesting ways.
The ability to collaborate is an essential human characteristic. The original story to which Bruegel referred in his painting, also indicates a human striving to create and cooperate. We feel this forms an interesting context with regards to the present moment.
The project is run by Team Babel, a personal group consisting of four printmakers Anni Huttu, Naoji Ishiyama, Kaisa Koljonen and Maria Pihl. They work as free artists at the printmaking studio Ratamo in Finland, and they created this project as an event for celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ratamo Printmaking and Photography Centre. Ratamo is run by Jyväskylä Art Museum.
Project Babel will tour to other centers around the world through 2025.
Instagram of the project:
https://www.instagram.com/printmaking_project_babel/
Jyväskylä Art Museum:
https://www.jyvaskyla.fi/en/jyvaskyla-art-museum