King of Babylon (2021)

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King of Babylon by Jed Gregorio

Traditionally sung by a choir, “Va, pensiero” is instead performed by the artist in the shower as a solo — a cappella and auto-tuned. Also known as the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, the song originates from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” of 1842, about the exile of the Jews from Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. The lyrics are inspired by Psalm 137, recounting the Jewish people’s yearning for their homeland. Quasi-narrative film and music video, the work recontextualizes the quotidian act of singing in the shower as a gesture of lamentation, and construes the bathroom as a liminal space that cocoons the paradoxes of intimacy and performativity, as well as the ontology of the body and the politics of objects.

About Jed Gregorio

Jed Gregorio (b. 1990) is a Filipino artist who lives and works in Manila, Philippines. His broad artistic practice encompasses photography, filmmaking, installation, and performance. Often informed by themes of politics of religiosity, masculinity, and post-Internet art histories, Gregorio’s free-ranging poetics manifest as serial and anthological projects that span multiple platforms, exhibitions, and diffusions, each operating in a hermeneutical cosmology developed through hyperfictional and multimedia strategies — from discrete works in assemblage and sculptural installation, to spatially expansive milieu constructed with images, objects, sound, and light. Gregorio’s current project-in-progress “Frat” was introduced in the tail-end of 2020, with “Act 1: Kristo Disco” and “Act 2: Monochrome One” presented in succession in context-specific premises. Gregorio graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Major in Communication, from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2011.

This work will be featured in the panel discussion “Modes, Moods, and Media” on May 7, 2021 (Friday), 2pm, an educational program of Art Fair Philippines 2021

Modes, Moods, and Media
with Alfred Marasigan, Tanya Villanueva, Marlon Hacla, Jed Gregorio
Moderated by Load na Dito

In this session, four artists will discuss their artistic approaches to media such as video, the Internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and explore the intersections between traditional and contemporary modes of artmaking. The session will also exchange the artists' insights on the recent swift shift to the virtual space, forced by the pandemic. How would the digital and online platforms affect our experience and perception of art?  

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