Nayla Dabaji, The world is turned upside down, 2015 : a remake of Pieter’s Bruegel “Netherlandish Proverbs”, 1559
Projected image with ambient sound
“To look through one’s fingers” (To turn a blind eye)
“It depends on the fall of the cards” (It’s up to chance)
“To bang one’s head against a brick wall” (To try to achieve the impossible)
“To gaze at the stork” (To waste one’s time)
“To throw one’s money into the water” (To waste one’s money)
“To be barely able to reach from one loaf to another” (To have difficulty living within budget)
“To hold an eel by the tail” (To undertake a difficult task)
“It is ill to swim against the stream” (It is difficult to oppose the general opinion)
“Wild bears prefer each other’s company” (Peers get along better with each other than with outsiders)
“Who knows why geese go barefoot?” (There is a reason for everything, though it may not be obvious)
“To drag the block” (To be deceived by a lover or to work at a pointless task)
“To be armed to the teeth” (To be heavily armed)
“To fall through the basket” (To have your deception uncovered)
“To run like one’s backside is on fire” (To be in great distress)
“To have the world spinning on one’s thumb” (To have every advantage)
“To toss feathers in the wind” (To work fruitlessly)
“He who has spilt his porridge cannot scrape it all up again” (Once something is done it cannot be undone)
“Never believe someone who carries fire in one hand and water in the other” (To be two-faced and to stir up trouble)
“To carry the day out on baskets” (To waste one’s time)
“To fall from the ox onto the rear end of an ass” (To fall on hard times)
“To fish behind the net” (To miss an opportunity)