What gets lost in a translation? What can we learn from unsaid things?
And how is that silenced shaped? What do forgotten words, books, libraries and archives still tell us? Can we liberate ourselves from assumptions and pose questions instead?
Inez Piso is a curator and translator who graduated with a bachelor's degree in Art History from the University of Amsterdam and a Master’s degree from the Universidad Autónoma Madrid. After working four years in the CA2M, Madrid, she moved to Istanbul where she participated in the IKSV Research Programme with the HüzünProject in 2018. She worked for After the Archive? an initiative that gains attention to silenced archives and questions the role of archives in the creation of public memory in Turkey. She likes to curate exhibitions in unexpected spaces, like an archival box that once belonged to Ulises Carrión: No Todo ~ Niet Alles or the public ferry that crosses the waters of Amsterdam for the Amsterdam Ferry Festival. At the end of 2021 she became the artistic director of HMK: an exhibition space an artist-in-residence programme located in a 17th century chapel.
She is teaches for the MA programme F for Fact at the Sandberg Institute and the Language and Image Department at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She is also a teacher at the Fine Arts Bachelor programme at Minerva Art Academy in Groningen. Although her practice is about things that cannot be said with words, she sometimes writes for art magazines like Mister Motley. She is continuously bridging cultural and geographical spaces with her interests in language and translation.
Silent borders
Mardin Biennial
When we say something, what is it we don't say?
For the Mardin Biennial 'Beyond Words' edition this workshop is an attempt to touch the limits of language and how art can be an alternative that can bring us beyond words.
Every language consists of words as much as silences; whenever we choose to say something, there are always things we are not saying. Language is a vehicle for organising our thoughts and communicating them. Every language is equipped with different labels and categories but is also limited by them.
Some emotions, thoughts and concepts are untranslatable and get stuck behind the borders of that particular language. At the same time they might represent something essential to the culture that refuses to be translated. What happens to those untranslatable concepts in a border region like Mardin where many cultures converge? Are there borders that can be silenced by the sounds of those different languages you can hear in the streets of Mardin?
In this workshop we will explore how these silent borders behave and how they are affected by those untranslatable concepts. We will reflect upon the existing limitations of language and see how we can establish an alternative vocabulary through art where different rules apply.
Sessiz sınırlar
Sessiz sınırlar
Her dil, sözcükler kadar sessizlik de içerir; kendimizi her ifade ettiğimizde, söylemediğimiz şeyler de beraberindedir. Dil, düşüncelerimizi organize etmek ve bunları iletmek için kullandığımız bir araçtır. Her dil farklı etiketler ve kategoriler ile donatılmıştır ama aynı zamanda bu ögeler tarafından sınırlandırılmıştır.
Bazı duygular, düşünceler ve kavramlar tam anlamıyla tercüme edilemez ve o dilin sınırlarında sıkışır. Aynı zamanda söz konusu kültüre ait ve çevrilemez özellikte temel bir kavramı temsil ediyor olabilirler. Mardin gibi bir çok kültürün iç içe geçtiği bir sınır bölgesinde bu çevrilemez kavramların akıbeti ne olur? Mardin sokaklarında duyabileceğiniz farklı dillerin sesleri bazı sınırları sessizleştirip onları yok edebilecek güçteler mi?
Bu atölyede, sessiz sınırların nasıl davrandıklarını ve çevrilemez kavramlardan nasıl etkilendiklerini araştıracağız. Dilde var olan sınırları tartışacağız ve sanatın devreye girerek farklı kuralların geçerli olması sayesinde nasıl farklı bir söz dağarcığı geliştirebileceğimizi anlamaya çalışacağız.
