For hundreds of years, encyclopedic museums have aspired to speak many languages, portray myriad cultures, and represent a comprehensive history of humanity. This impossible task, however, becomes more useful when understood as a flawed, fragmentary project.The legend of the Tower of Babel explains the origin of diverse languages as a divine punishment for human ambition: plans to build a tower taller than the skies collapsed after builders started speaking different languages.

La escena representada en esta fotografía es teatral, reverencial y casi absurda. La cortina al fondo sugiere un escenario donde una obra de teatro llega a su fin. La marioneta es Rene d’Harnoncourt, un curador y marchante que vivía en México. Veinte años después de que se hizo esta fotografía, d’Harnoncourt se convirtió en director del Museo de Arte Moderno en Nueva York, donde desarrolló una visión global para el museo y distinguió sus exhibiciones con diseños reflexivos y teatrales.

The scene depicted in this photograph is theatrical, reverential, and almost absurd. The curtain in the background suggests a stage where a play is coming to an end. The marionette is Rene d’Harnoncourt, a curator and art dealer who was living in Mexico at the time. Twenty years after this photograph was made, d’Harnoncourt became director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he developed a global vision for the museum and distinguished his exhibitions with thoughtful and theatrical spatial designs.

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Listen to commentary by artist Puppies Puppies.