Kader Attia
Big Bang
2005
Sculpture, motorised polyurethane sphere, mirrors
180cm diameter.
Big Bang by Kader Attita uses the symbols of Judaism and Islam – the Star of David and the crescent – to make a charged image. These intertwined elements form a large, tantalizing ball that alternately resembles an enormous disco ball or even a meteorite threatening the Earth. One may read this work as an expression of a longing for reconciliation between two divergent religions. Its title, however, points towards a more layered reading: it alludes to the scientific theory of the Big Bang, which contradicts mythological and religious narratives of creation. The religious symbols characterize the identity conflict embodied in Attia’s works, and their compulsive recurrence presents them as signs that have long been orphaned of meaning. Big Bang represents Attia’s ongoing concern with the tension between religious traditions and secular images that stand for hedonism and consumerism.
Kader Attia is a renowned French-Algerian artist based in Berlin. His multimedia installations untangle global narratives of migration in relation to the ongoing impact of colonization. Often working in Africa, significantly in the Congo and Senegal, his film essays foreground intellectual contributions to art, medicine, philosophy, and science by the world’s Indigenous Peoples. His ideas are inspired by the concept of “Repair”, towards communal rehabilitation throughout the planet.