Tintin Wulia (IDN)

Babel
2013
16-channel synchronised sound installation
Duration 15 min, at the hour

Tintin Wulia is an artist and film maker. She was born in Denpasar, 1972. Aside of being trained on architecture at Parahyangan Catholic University of Bandung, she also studied music at the Berkley College of Music, USA. Tintin currently receive a PhD on art from the RMIT University of Australia. Tintin Wulia had made an exhibition in Sharjah Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Yokohama Triennial, Jakarta Biennale, Institute of Contemporary Art London, Liverpool Biennial, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. Several of her works has become the collection of Stedelicjk Van Abbemuseum of the Netherlands, Singapore Art Museum, and the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art in Australia. `

Tintin’s project for Biennale Jogja XII was generated from her one month residence program in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Verging on sound poetry, ‘Babel’ explores languages and their social perception as a kind of boundary, while peering into the hidden network of global nomadism across the borders which channels thousands of lives. Its starting point is the Egyptian poet Hisham El Gakh’s controversial poem, Al Taashira (The Visa, 2011) recited at the finals of Prince of Poets on Abu Dhabi TV, that criticises the Arab leaders for their sellouts that disunite the Arab states. By way of this poem, Babel creates spaces in which the voices of the modern-day Arabic nomads, the landless/stateless Arabs, are pronounced through other poems including Jawaz Al Safar (Passport, 1971) by the renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), Min Mu’adalat Al Hurreyya (From the Formulas of Freedom, 1986) by the revered Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998), and several short poems by a stateless Sharjah-born poetess of Palestinian origin, Hamsa Yunus. Together with translations and readings by the esteemed Indonesian poet Landung Simatupang and emerging poetess Khairani Barokka, the poems are built into a rich composition of calls and responses that interweaves sentiments, sounds and meanings through different languages. Like these modern- day nomads, a reality of globalisation that forms a strong – but often unacknowledged – undercurrent, the composition is regularly heard but is never seen.

Featuring works by poets: Hisham El Gakh, Nizar Qabbani, Mahmoud Darwish, Hamsa Yunus, Landung Simatupang, Khairani Barokka | Research assistants and translators: Uns Kattan, Nada Al Jasmi | Additional research: Aya El Gergawy, Hanan Arab, Abdullah Mohammed Alomari| Voice talents: Hamsa Yunus, Landung Simatupang, Khairani Barokka, Sataan Al Hassan, Uns Kattan, Nada Al Jasmi, Lana Samman, Hanan Arab, Abdullah Mohammed Alomari, Khairiah Al Kassab, Haia Haj Morad| With thanks for the recordings: Clément Vincent, Abdullah Mohammed Alomari (American University of Sharjah), Marzuki Mohamad (Jogja Hiphop Foundation), Griya Musik Irama Indah Bilad Al Orbi Awtani performed by Hani Mitwasi at Bands Across Borders concert, Amman, Jordan, 2013 The poems, song and music are copyright their respective authors and/or performers Commissioned by the Jogja Biennale Foundation in collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation