ALAA ABU ASAD
Glossolalia / ثَرثَرة
Single-channel video, 14'37"
With Ignace Cami, 2021
Glossolalia reveals poetic diversity and is an ode to the pleasure of looking at images and listening to sounds.In Glossolalia, tonal language or speaking in tongues transforms difficult communication and misunderstandings into playful and refined poetry. References to the online gatherings of Under the Tower / Onder de Kerktoren / تحت البرج exhibition-project are present but never overbearing. Glossolalia is a conversation between the artists, and through audiovisual elements it offers a window on the world, an invite to a contemplative journey.
Glossolalia is a form of uncommon speech behaviour and is also known as ‘tonal language’ or ‘speaking in tongues’. A visual language can be clear to one person and totally ambiguous to another, yet arousing their curiosity. Translation creates a Tower of Babel. Language, whether visual or textual, evokes associations that are rooted in history, context and culture.
Alaa Abu Asad is a Palestinian artist, researcher, and photographer. His practice is centred around developing alternative trajectories in which values of (re)presentation, translation, viewing, reading, and understanding can intersect. Language and plants are main themes in his research–based work, which takes form in writing, film and interactive installations.