260 days in 15 minutes
The ancient Maya used a very ingenious and accurate calendar consisting of several cycles of different lengths. One of these cycles is the Tzolkin calendar, which consists of 260 days (or “kins”). According to this structure, processes tend to repeat themselves every 260 days.
The installation Unborn Babies that Rule the World is based on this Mayan concept and has the aim to retrace the repetition of emotions or events. Personal recordings and political news connected to the life of an individual are represented in the grid of the calendar. The dates of the videos according to Gregorian calendar are converted to Tzolkin-kins and positioned on the grid accordingly. Some of the numbers are mentioned on the grid, they are running from left to right, from top to bottom.
Materials from various years are used, as the only way to recognise the repetition is to compare several cycles.
A lot of children do not get born. They take revenge because they are not there. Unborn kids are dictating a lot of things in society by talking to their parents. They rule the world.
17 July 2013 / Kin 155
‘Twee over één / Spiritualiteit’, Kunstbeeld, Maartje Knepper, p. 26-27, April 2015, The Netherlands (Dutch)
‘13×20 = 260 / 20×13 = 260’, Tzolkin Kalender, Tijtse Boersma, 30-11-2014, The Netherlands (Dutch)
Masha Ru: Looking for a description of life’, Rijksakademie Inside/Out, Frederieke Beunk, 02-06-2014, The Netherlands (English)
https://rijksakademie.tumblr.com/post/87581224652/masha-ru-looking-for-a-description-of-life
The work is produced during the residency at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam with the support of KPN and Mondriaan Funds.
