Venice Biennale 2022 - Lena Herzog
Last Whispers by Lena Herzog
Composition & Sound Design by Marco Capalbo
and Mark Mangini
VR Engineering by Jonathan Yomayuza,
Animation by Amanda Tasse
Graphic Design by Maggie Morris
Curated by Silvia Burini, Maria Gatti Racah, Giulia Gelmi, Anastasia Kozachenko-Stravinsky
Presented by Ca’ Foscari University, Cultural Flow Zone, UNESCO and Marilyn & Jim Simons Foundation
In a talk delivered by artist Lena Herzog at the Museum of Modern Art and reprinted in the NATURA edition, Lena explores the rampant extinction of languages.
“Every two weeks, the world loses a language. Out of approximately 7,000 languages spoken on earth today, at least half will have fallen silent by the end of this century. Some people predict a far more radical future—or, rather, lack thereof—for the world’s linguistic diversity.
Many of these languages, having never been recorded, are vanishing without a trace. Humanity is losing the knowledge, the variety of worldviews, and the cosmologies that indigenous communities have for centuries encoded in these languages and cultures. Let there be no doubt: this is a mass extinction. By definition, it occurs in silence, since silence is the very form of this extinction.”
Installation view: still from Last Whispers by Lena Herzog
The immersive experience of Lena’s work leaves the viewer transformed. A deep sadness burrows into the inner regions of the psyche. An intuitive knowing that these disappearing languages, faint as a whisper, may be the last gasp of indigenous wisdom that hold knowledge for human survival.
Have we grown past the ability to hear them, to understand their meaning, to acknowledge their importance? Are we so resigned to the silence that we have collectively ignored this extinction or worse still, adopted a system of erasing different points of view, that don’t suit the dominant culture. This immersive experience is a grave warning of what we have lost already and what we shall lose if we do not listen to the whispers.
The fully immersive, final edition of LAST WHISPERS is currently on display during the 2022 Venice Biennale.
VIRTUAL REALITY / 30 minutes
Date: April 21- July 30
When: Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM, Sunday 3 PM - 6 PM
Where: CZF
(Ca’ Foscari Zattere/Cultural Flow Zone)
Zattere al Pontelungo
Dorsoduro 1392, Venice
MURAL INSTALLATION
Date: April 21 - September 30
When: Monday - Saturday 8 AM - 7 PM
Where: Main courtyard of Ca’Foscari
Palazzo Ca’Giustinian
Dorsoduro 3246, Venice
ART NIGHT: LARGE SCALE PROJECTION / 30 minutes
Date: June 18, 6 PM
When: Projection at 9 PM
Where: Main Courtyard Ca’Foscari
Palazzo Ca’Giustinian
Dorsoduro 3246, Venice
Find out more about
Last Whispers here.
Find out more about the work of Lena Herzog here.