project babel…

Project Babel is an international printmaking collaboration project, involving 335 print-makers from 40 studios in 19 countries, who came together to create an artwork based on the painting “The Great Tower of Babel” (1563) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Participants were allocated an individual segment which they re-imagined in their own ways, using different printmaking techniques.

All the works were assembled as a new ‘Tower’.

The result of the project opened in Galleria Ratamo (Jyväskylä, Finland) on December 14th 2023 and will travel to a number of other locations.

In the exhibition space, every segment was exhibited separately alongside information panels of all the participating printmaking studios and their print-makers.

Project Babel's goal is to gather print-makers from all over the world and build new connections between studios. Collaboration allows us to create artwork made with diverse printmaking methods and styles. The process is interesting in its unpredictability; the result emerged only when we gathered all our work together and it diverged from the original image in many interesting ways.

The ability to collaborate is an essential human characteristic. The original story to which Bruegel referred in his painting also indicates a human striving to create and co-operate. We feel this forms an interesting context with regards to the present moment.

The project was run by Team Babel, a personal group consisting of four print-makers Anni Huttu, Naoji Ishiyama, Kaisa Koljonen and Maria Pihl.

They work as free artists at the printmaking studio Ratamo in Finland, and they created this project as an event for celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ratamo Printmaking- and Photography Centre.

Ratamo is run by Jyväskylä Art Museum.