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November 8, 2011
Razing a New Tower of Babel
THe Wall Street Journal
by Tad Hendrickson
As Manhattan sees its skyline altered once again by the new World Trade Center tower, and downtown Brooklyn watches the emergence of the Barclays Center arena, big digs are taking up a lot of physical and psychic space in New York City.
It's fitting, then, that down the road from the Nets' new home at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, these and other themes underpin a ground-breaking new multimedia work called "Brooklyn Babylon," which begins a four-day run Wednesday as part of the BAM's Next Wave Festival.
Devised by Grammy-nominated composer/arranger Darcy James Argue and graphic artist Danijel Zezelj, "Brooklyn Babylon" presents a new dystopian version of the Tower of Babel fable, wherein the mayor of Brooklyn, in a grand act of hubris, decides to build the tallest building in the world. The story also follows an Eastern Europe immigrant carpenter, who lives in the neighborhood where the tower is being erected, as he builds a carousel atop the structure and becomes an accomplice to the destruction of his beloved neighborhood.
"I think people are going to draw whatever conclusions they want to draw from the story—whether it is related to Atlantic Yards or other projects," Mr. Argue said. "We wanted to be broader than that, but there is certainly resonance with the fact that it is happening right around the corner from where we happen to be performing the work."
Posted by eric at November 8, 2011 10:28 PM