CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/8/2017

Constant: New Babylon. To Us, Liberty

In 1974, Dutch artist, Situationist and COBRA cofounder Constant described his now-legendary plan for a utopian city without borders, which he refined and reworked for the better part of 20 years. "A symbolic representation of the dynamic labyrinth: that is how New Babylon can be interpreted. For me it was the disintegration that had to end the exhibition. You know Rimbaud's saying 'The idea is to reach the unknown by the derangement of all the senses.' I am not even talking about an alternative future, for I do not say: this is the future. I am no prophet. I merely say: one could live better, or at any rate on a higher lever. How? you might ask. Instead of always having to toil and labor, be slaves, people could be free. And to me, freedom is creativity." Featured image, of Constant's model "Klein Labyr (Little Labyr) (1959) is reproduced from Constant: New Babylon, Hatje Cantz's exemplary catalogue to the recent exhibition at Gemeente Museum, The Hague.