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LLETANIA APÒRIMA

[APORIC LITANY] 2009

11.10.18 – 7 pm

APORIC LITANY was originally presented in 2009 as a pre-recorded spokenword work in English (included in full in the audio programme of the present exhibition), and excerpts of it in Catalan were also read live as part of the final part of CRIES & WHISPERS that same year. The second word in its title derives from aporia, a philosophical notion of dynamic uncertainty. In common use, the word litany has also come to signify a long list of failures, complaints, or disasters. The litany addressed to a deity conventionally takes the form of a series of set invocations recited by a priest, which alternate with the invariable responses of the congregation. Yet, here, the rhythmic and rhetorical expressions that have been scripted by the artist leave no semantic room for reply, and piety has been infused with profanity.

This dramatised, repetitive oration—at moments marked by obedience, anguish, apostasy, regret, abuse, and provocation—is delivered in Catalan by an inscrutable priest-courtier character. Because the format of the litany has been folded in on itself (believers are neither being addressed nor obediently responding), the effect of the voice is more akin to a conflicted interior monologue that stutters and recurrently ties itself into the same knot of compulsions and desires.

Performer: Jordi Vall-lamora

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