fr / en
Meritocracy…
“We, Moderns, believe in equality, but we also know that society is hierarchically organized
and constantly produces inequalities; we have all kinds of stories, with which we live
daily and which we think about without thinking, which resolve this insurmountable
contradiction. They characterize the egalitarian common sense.“
Alain Ehrenberg, Le culte de la performance“
…From the social ladder to the steamroller
The pattern borrowed from pre-Columbian cultures is recomposed with blades,
trapezoidal pieces of metal, a highly symbolic shape for the Incas. The notches of the
blades as eyes of individuals piled up on one another, upside down, each as the others’
stepping stones.
Between the escalator, the labyrinth made of step backwards, and the tidal wave, the
pattern of a Chancai textile belonging to the collections of the Linden Museum invites
us to think about the fabric of social hierarchy made of beliefs and narratives that
structures of States – from the Incas to modern societies.