In May 2011, Argentinian artist Marta Minujín created her own tower of Babel in Buenos Aires. It consisted of over 30,000 books in various languages attached to a seven-storey steel structure rising to a height of 27 metres. Within the structure was a spiral walkway, which meant that visitors could move amongst the books and interact with this literary monument on their upward journey. The idea of ascent is, after all, integral to the story of Babel, for the tower was made there (Heb. sham) to reach to the heavens (Heb. shamayim).

But Minujín’s ascent was not forged around the monovocality of the original tower. As visitors ascended, they heard a soundtrack of the word ‘book’ being uttered in various languages: libro, Buch, raamat, biblio, puke, carte, iwe, kitab, sefer…. Thus, this upward journey could enlighten, for as people ascended the tower they could ‘see’ the way the world really is, in all its diversity and plurality. And rather than celebrating localized human achievement, they could be caught up in a celebration of sheer variety and heteroglossia.

However, such a celebratory monument was not destined for permanence because Minujín’s career has been based around making works that are designed to be destroyed. And that’s what happened with her tower. Twenty days after its installation, the books were removed. Some were given to the public library, others gifted to individuals who took them away into their own separate lives. 

The intentional dispersion of books as part of the work’s purpose speaks to the original Babel. This is because, by all staying together in one place and focusing on building, humanity was not spreading out, multiplying, and filling the earth (Genesis 1:28; 9:1). There was more to be found and discovered.

Therefore, this story of beginnings, of aetiology, demonstrates the reality of the world: we don’t all live in one place and we don’t all speak the same language. And the sharing of languages and books in Minujín’s installation indicates that our not all having the same words as each other can be a source of gain; that there is more to be discovered outside of our own languages and stories. Indeed, Minujín’s tower seems to call us to believe that in plurality there is richness, and that it is a collective experience worth being part of.

References

2011. ‘La Torre de Babel de Libros, Marta Minujín, 2011’. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXa98wz5zbk [accessed 17 August 2023]

2014. ‘Marta Minujín on Art, Books and Democracy, 22 December 2014’, www.guggenheim.org. Available at https://www.guggenheim.org/video/marta-minujinnon-art-books-and-democracy [accessed 17 August 2023]