Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla are part of the fortheenth Sharjah Biennial with the project Specters of Noon (2009), which explores the numinous qualities of midday, taking as the point of departure the short essay ‘Le complexe de midi’ [The noon complex], written by Roger Callois and published in the October 1936 edition of the surrealist journal Minotaur 9. Callois describes a precarious instance of perfect balance when ‘the sun, at its zenith, divides the day into equal parts, each governed by the opposing signs of rise and decline.’ This is when the blazing sun eliminates shadows, and ecstatic and delirious visions emerge. Engulfing these apparitions is the numb torpor and weariness brought on by the excessive heat of the sun.  

Allora & Calzadilla’s solar-powered laser light and sound projection emerges at this precise moment of solar noon and can be witnessed only for a few minutes before it disappears until the following day.  The imaginary drift induced by the work conjures the daemonium meridianum of several poets and writers, whose works confront the archetypal theme of midday.

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