The kinetic installation “Library of the Winds” brings together 18 winds, the sound of which were collected by Ahmed in person or using meteorological data. With this work, Ahmed contemplates how the wind helps us understand the modern obsession with origins and order, while questioning distinctions between sensual and mediatized experience, wondering what we think of when we think of the wind. Around the world, evening news broadcasts use air-powered lottery machines to blow a select few lives into Mega-Millions. The “Library of the Winds” has one too and when a winning wind is selected, the Library moves to reproduce them via DIY aeoliphones informed by actual weather data. Used since the 14th century in theatre and opera to produce the sound of the wind, as the aeoliphones (or wind machines) begin to sing, the floor moves in concert while the geometrically patterned and mirrored ceiling counterrotates affecting our sense of orientation. Just as the wind mediates many of our senses, the library addresses sight, sound, and orientation.

Produced with the support of Werktank (Leuven, Belgium) and the Flemish Community.