Dandara Catete

The expression ‘Tower of Babel’ is used informally in Brazil to designate those situations where everyone talks at a time and yet no one understands each other. Dandara Catete’s installation appropriates itself of this biblical fable taking it into the domestic realm, where small daily battles fatefully take place—amongst raised voices at times, in quite a Babelesque atmosphere—but also to expose the determining role of the church in creating the gender divide by relegating women to the domestic environment. The fable of the Tower of Babel tells of a man-made construction built by people who would have come together to find a way to heaven on their own, a concept which enraged an almighty god that, perhaps, feared for his sovereignty before a people who found their own solutions despite him. Here, the tower gains new meaning, as the accumulation of dishes feels like an ode to chaos, a protest, a refusal of domestic chores; a construction to defy patriarchy. In its precarious balance, the tower stands tall, revealing the beauty amidst disorder and the strength of resisting and creating in situations of precariousness.