On 11 September 1995, two of the world’s greatest chess players faced each other on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Garry Kasparov defended his world title against Viswanathan Anand in a match that announced a new era of the game, staged in a location that would, six years later, carry an entirely different meaning. That same day, the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 encountered a massive rogue wave in the North Atlantic, an event that helped overturn centuries of scientific scepticism about freak waves and vindicated generations of dismissed sailor testimony. Years later, on 11 September 2001, French rock band Noir Désir released an album featuring a song called The Great Fire on the morning the Twin Towers fell. Three events, one date, and the strange way history layers meaning onto the calendar without asking permission. Clara Vale explores coincidence, tragedy, and the moments when human ambition meets the unpredictable forces of the world.
