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Tremulations Curated by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies
Image: Magic Smoke

Tremulations is a multi-disciplinary project conceived by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies, comprising of exhibitions, publications and events worldwide. Derived from "The Nine Rules of Tremulation", as set out by Emmanuel Swedenborg in his publication On Tremulation (1719) Tremulations stitches together selected artworks from the 20th and 21st Century, films, artefacts, books as well as new works of art, film and VR. Tremulations comes about through the unique collaboration of Birnbaum, Davies and the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee for Literature.

THE NINE RULES OF TREMULATION

THE FIRST RULE OF TREMULATION

ANYTHING OF A FIRM AND HARD NATURE, SUCH AS WOOD, STONE, ROCK, METAL, ETC., IS SUBJECTED TO GREAT TREMULATIONS EVEN BY A SLIGHT TOUCH.

THE SECOND RULE

AN EXPANDED MEMBRANE IS THE BEST MEDIUM OF TREMULATION.

THE THIRD RULE

NEXT TO MEMBRANES, THE BEST MEDIA OF TREMULATION ARE SUCH BODIES AS ARE HARD AND ELASTIC; SOFTER BODIES, ARE LESS SUITABLE.

THE FOURTH RULE

THE TREMULATION OF A STRING WILL CAUSE A SYNTHETIC VIBRATION IN ANOTHER STRING ; A MEMBRANE SIMILARLY AFFECTS ANOTHER MEMBRANE ; THAT IS, IF BOTH ARE TUNED IN THE SAME KEY.

THE FIFTH RULE

TREMULATIONS IN THE AIR MAKE RINGS AND CIRCLES, AND ARE HEARD ON ALL SIDES ROUND THE CENTRE OF THE MOTION; THAT IS, IF THE WHOLE MASS IS NOT BEING MOVED.

THE SIXTH RULE

THE HEAVIER THE ATMOSPHERE, THE SLOWER IS THE TREMULATION, BUT THE LIGHTER THE AIR, THE SWIFTER IS THE MOTION.

 

THE SEVENTH RULE

ONE TREMULATION DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH ANOTHER, SIMULTANEOUS ONE.

 

THE EIGHTH RULE

IN ALL TREMULATIONS THE ANGLE OF REFLECTION IS EQUAL TO THE ANGLE OF INCIDENCE.

 

THE NINTH RULE

THERE ARE MILLIONS OF VARIATIONS.

SWEDENBORG HOUSE, LONDON
3 April - 29 June 2023

Tremulations, an exhibition in three chapters at London’s Swedenborg House, opens with the world premiere of Mark Leckey’s first Virtual Reality work: The Bridge.

Emanuel Swedenborg’s visionary universe is one of reflections and correspondences. Sacred scripture, he claimed, is a mirror in which we see God. At her request, he once introduced a young girl to an angel: leading her to a corner of his study, he drew back a curtain to reveal a mirror and the girl’s own face. Swedenborg, the author of On Tremulations (1719), envisioned a cosmos in which everything, including seemingly solid objects, vibrates. “In tremulations there are a millions of variations”, according to the ninth and final rule of his doctrine. 

 

The exhibition Tremulations, curated by Jacqui Davies and Daniel Birnbaum, presents objects from the rich archives of the Swedenborg House as well as writings and works of art by, among others, Marcel Duchamp, Yayoi Kusama, Meret Oppenheim, Emanuel Swedenborg and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Structured according to Swedenborg’s Nine Rules of Tremulation, the exhibition will be presented in three chapters manifested in physical, temporal and virtual space at Swedenborg House. Each chapter will include a Virtual Reality work produced by Acute Art: The Bridge by Mark Leckey (April), Hilma af Klint: The Temple (May) and It will End in Stars by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg (June) as well as 3 “corresponding” works of projection, The first will be Phantoms of Nabua by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the second, My Blood Self: Civilisations 1 by Grace Ndiritu, the third, Testament A: MF FKA K-P X KE RIP by Tony Cokes.

Thanks to Acute Art, Primitive Film, Charles Asprey, Cabinet Gallery, KateMacGarry Gallery and Greene Naftali Gallery.

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NO NAME, PARIS
14 October 2024 - 15 January 2025

This exhibition, which includes works by sixteen artists, uses his “Nine Rules of Tremulation” as a schema to explore forms of dissemination and coagulation. Reflections, shadows, echoes, and replicas are important themes in the show, as are methods of transmissions and forms of vibration and trembling. An emphasis on the multisensory agency of things–artworks as well as technical artefact–creates spaces of reflection and ambience that rid our thinking of the obsession with the historically overemphasized relationship between a perceiving subject and a known object. Other, equally productive relaionships between agents–synthetic or organic can emerge.

 

This exhibition at No Name forms part of the ongoing project Tremulations, initiated by Daniel Birnbaum & Jacqui Davies at the Swedenborg House in London last year. The project involves cinematic and literary events in many cities produced in collaboration with members of the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee.

 

ARTISTS

Karla Black, Tony Cokes, Thea Djordjadze, Trisha Donnell, Marcel Duchamp, Cerith Wyn Evans, Spencer Finch, Shilpa Gupta, Veronika Hapchenko, Anne Imhof, Emily Kraus, Alicja Kwade, Nam June Paik, Iris Touliatou, Nobuko Tsuchiya, Anicka Yi

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ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, STOCKHOLM
26 November 2024 - 12 February 2025

This exhibition, which includes works by sixteen artists, uses his “Nine Rules of Tremulation” as a schema to explore forms of dissemination and coagulation. Reflections, shadows, echoes, and replicas are important themes in the show, as are methods of transmissions and forms of vibration and trembling. An emphasis on the multisensory agency of things–artworks as well as technical artefact–creates spaces of reflection and ambience that rid our thinking of the obsession with the historically overemphasized relationship between a perceiving subject and a known object. Other, equally productive relaionships between agents–synthetic or organic can emerge.

This exhibition at No Name forms part of the ongoing project Tremulations, initiated by Daniel Birnbaum & Jacqui Davies at the Swedenborg House in London last year. The project involves cinematic and literary events in many cities produced in collaboration with members of the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee.

VIDEO WORKS by Jacqui Davies

Signals 

Techno Tesla 

The Man with the Flower in His Mouth 

Sound Shattering Glass 

Vortex 

Mirror and Water 

Murmuration 

Hall of Mirrors

Stockholm Dreaming of London 

LITERARY EXCERPTS 

 

Etel Adnan, The Spring Flowers Own, 1990

Charles Baudelaire, Correspondances, 1857

Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Poems 1923–1967

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43), 1850

Olga Tokarczuk, Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, 2009

August Strindberg, Inferno, 1897

Selma Lagerlöf, Brev, 1890–1899

鈴木 大拙 貞太郎 (Suzuki Daisetsu Teitaro)

Swedenborg: Buddha of the North, 1996

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil, 1832.

5. Akt, "Bergschluchten, Chorus Mysticus"

A.S. Byatt, Angels and Insects, 1993

Gerard de Nerval, Aurélia, 1855

W. B. Yeats, Swedenborg, Mediums and the Desolate Places, 1914

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Vale Ave, 1957

Gunnar Ekelöf, Färjesång, 1941, En Mölna-elegi, 1960

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TREMULATIONS: LATIN AMERICA
 
November 2025

Tremulations by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies Book Cover

Authors: Daniel Birnbaum & Jacqui Davies
Buchhandlung Walther König

Lottery Funded, BFI, BFI Film Forever Logos

PRIMITIVE FILM is supported by the BFI’s Vision Awards

Ace Producers Logo
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