tower of silence by LABOUR | 2024
Julia Stoschek Foundation Berlin: After Images Exhibition

The installation references 3,000-year-old Zoroastrian sky burials in which the bodies of the deceased are placed on open-air platforms (dakhma, or Towers of Silence) to be devoured by vultures, eventually leaving the bones to be dried in the baking sun. Every half hour, participants encounter an activation of sound and light through which LABOUR explore three types of silence: forced silence, stoic silence, and profound silence. In combination with vibrating subwoofers and lighting patterns—from very low light to color and intense strobe effects—the spatially oriented piece brings us to the edges of perception so that we might pass through different states of being to transcend earthly sensations. While the sound composition draws on glissandi, a sculpture at the center of the space swoops down like a giant beak from the sky, inspired by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis’s early scores, to represent such dramatic upward and downward transitions.