With Shibboleth,Doris Salcedo has opened a long, snaking crack across the vast lenght of the Turbine Hall.Fracturing the concrete floor, her new work strikes to the very foundations of the museum.
A shibboleth, according to the Oxford English dictionary,is a word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation:a word
or sound very difficult for foreigners to pronounce correctly.It is, therefore, a way of separating one people from another.The word refers back to an incident in the Bible.
The book of Judges describes how the Ephraimites, attempting to flee across the river Jordan,were stopped by their enemies, the Gileadites.As their dialect did not include a "sh" sound, those who could not say the word "shibboleth" were captured and
executed.
marți, aprilie 22, 2008
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