Parallel to the exhibition It Goes Without Saying, a selection of three video works is presented in the choir space. Each film engages with questions of language, identity, and memory. The works are shown on a continuous loop.

Mekhitar Garabedian — MG (2005, video, 1’55”)

In MG, Mekhitar Garabedian reenacts a scene from François Truffaut’s Baisers Volés (1968). Standing before a mirror, he alternates between pronouncing his name in Dutch and in Armenian. The work exposes the tension between languages and the identities they shape. Garabedian explores the translation of the self through imitation, heritage, and linguistic expectation.

Meggy Rustamova — Babel (2019, HD video, 8’)

A woman attempts to recall words in Assyrian, her nearly forgotten mother tongue. What appears at first as a struggle with memory gradually unfolds into a reflection on transmission, family bonds, and cultural continuity. Babel not only illuminates an intimate exchange between mother and daughter but also highlights the urgency of preserving endangered languages.

Fairuz & El Moïz Ghammam — Oumoun (2017, video, 14’23”)

A recorded letter that was never sent forms the basis of Oumoun. In the presence of the camera, filmmaker Fairuz reads the text aloud to her grandmother in Mahdia, Tunisia. The voice-over gradually transforms into a dialogue across generations, cultures, and geographies, revealing language as a bridge between lived worlds.

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© Still from Babel (2019), Meggy Rustamova