4 October 2008 – 21 December 2008

TRANSLATION PARADOXES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Artists / authors:
Pierre Bismuth, Chiapas Media Project, Beth Derbyshire / Ilari Valbonesi, Esra Ersen / Miya Yoshida, Patricia Esquivias / Cristian Silva, Lise Harlev / Boris Boll-Johansen / Leila El-Kayem, Farida Heuck / Kien Nghi Ha, Susan Hiller / Sonja Lau / Andre Siegers, Andreas Künzli, Wolf Schmelter, Pavel Medvedev / Alexander Komin, Praga Manifesto / Dietrich M. Weidmann, Khanh Minh Nguyen / Andrea L. Rassel, Raqs Media Collective / Ravi Sundaram, Volker Schreiner / Kristina Tieke.


The year 2008 has been declared as the International Year of Languages by the United Nations. The declared objective of the European Union language policy is to strengthen the multilingualism of European citizens. The newly established EU-Commission for Multilingualism declares that speaking many languages makes businesses and citizens more competitive and more mobile. Given the predominance of economic logic, competitiveness seems to be a key argument, holding more sway than an interest in heterogeneous, polyphonic language communities.

The project Translation Paradoxes and Misunderstandings takes as its starting point linguistic-political considerations on multilinguality on the one hand, while investigating on the other to what extent this also affects the poliphony and if the affects are similar or vary. Translation problematic, translation paradoxes and inventing languages are not only prevalent when bridging linguistic divides, but are also evident within language areas themselves. Furthermore, when exploring translation we shall not just proceed from spoken language, but look into the modus of translation in itself, which is inscribed into intersubjective understanding/conflict as well as in transcontextual and intermedia relations. Artistic works and films will be shown which explore the question of the (im-)possibility of translation as well as (un-)productive misunderstandings. As part of a commentary level, authors or scientists proposed by the participating artists were asked to write a short text about the contents and questions of the respective work in their native language. The commentaries are brought together on a round table which is part of the exhibition.

Address

Shedhalle
Seestrasse 395
8038 Zürich
phone +41 44 481 59 50
http://www.shedhalle.ch

Opening Hours

Wednesday-Friday 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., Thursday 2 p.m. - 9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 2 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Within 10 days
starting exhibitions
ending exhibitions