LOD / Steve Salembier

Terrible and frightening, but oh so fascinating, the megalopolis imagined by architect Steve Salembier attracts and intrigues. His dissection of the contemporary cosmopolitan city is both ruthless and poetic. He examines our galloping urbanism and raises the question of the place of the living in such an environment.

Using models, photographs and projections, Steve Salembier demonstrates the fundamental mutation of the relationship between human beings and their personal universe. Babel is also a sound performance in which the breathing of the metropolis is aligned with musical rhythms that are sometimes repetitive and contemplative, sometimes incantatory. Evoking a biblical city propelled into the 21st century, today's Babel is reminiscent of yesterday's Babel. The proud City of Cities is also a city of confused languages, collapsing under its own weight... a city that encompasses all cities! Under Steve Salembier's magnifying glass, the immaculate lounges, parking lots and vertiginous facades are food for thought. Our modern cities, criss-crossed by lines - subways, escalators, elevators - make getting around a ritual that Covid-19 and current and future crises invite us to rethink.