The Translating Factory at the Language Cafe Special - photos

Welcome to the Translating Factory !

Nottingham Library has quite a lot of bilingual dictionaries

and with Matthew's participation, I managed to have about 25 of them.

The most unexpected for me were Gypsy and Twi ... and maybe Igbo too.

Direct translation in Swahili

Trying to translate in Bengali

What do you love at the Nottingham Contemporary !

On Saturday 2nd July, I was lucky to have been commissioned to produce a sound piece as part of Solo Art Solo Heart. The sound piece was accompanying the What do you love ? installation.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and the sound piece wasn't played. I received the apologies from the commissioners (City Arts) who have now promised to support me to develop this work further.

The sound piece, as the rest of this project, is an ongoing piece. For it, I ask people my 5 questions (What are the most important place, date, person and object in your life and what do you love) and I ask them to answer in their language (when not English). They then teach me how to pronounce them. The final sound piece consists of me saying their answers in their language, as if I was really able to speak so many ! I will keep collecting as many different languages as I can ....

I was very pleased to have the What do you love ? installation on display at the Nottingham Contemporary, even for one night !

Proposal for the Nottingham Contemporary

Work as installed on the night

Looking at the work, James, my Mongolian teacher,

wearing is "Mongolia" tee shirt.

The Translating Factory at the Language Cafe Special this Saturday

This Saturday I will be at the Language Cafe with the "Translating Factory" where we will be translating people's answers to the "What do you love ?" questions in as many different languages as we can. Bring your dictionaries !

"Language Café Refugee Week Special.

We are delighted to invite you to our Language Cafe Refugee Week Special this Saturday at the Forum.It will be a special extended version of the Language Cafe where we will highlight some of the more unusual languages spoken among our community. There will also be a ‘Language Cabaret’, a barbecue and music in the garden. Please see the flyer below for full details."

Mongolian is RRRReally Harrrrd !! .... for a French person ...

Working at a commissioned sound piece for Solo Art, Solo Heart in July.
In collaboration with the Language Cafe, I have asked people to answer the questions from "What do you love ?" in their language.  They help me to practice. The final piece will be my voice saying people's answers in different languages.

James here is helping me practicing with Mongolian ... with great patience and perseverance !!

Most recent statement for "What do you love ?"

What do you love?

Ongoing interactive installation from 2002 – present

This work has been shown as an itinerant, ever-growing interactive mobile in which people can step in and write their answers to those questions:

what is the most important … date, person, object, place in your life? What do you love?

Participants can also write in their mother tongue if it isn’t English.

More than 200 people have already taken part since 2002. Already about 15 different languages: English, Welsh, French, Portuguese, Kurdish, Jamaican patois, Catalan, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Thai, Japanese.

Another part of the work consists in the never-ending translation of each single paper (individuals’ answers); each paper is numbered, the answers typed and then translated in as many different languages as possible. It takes the shape of a booklet. This work is not presented here.

“I am currently working collaboratively with the Language Café in Nottingham toward the production of a sound piece for Solo Heart Solo Art at the Nottingham Contemporary in July. The sound piece will consist of the artist trying to say people’s answers to the questions in different languages.” CSD

-   Piece commissioned for Common Ground, Stoke-on-Trent, 20

-  Taken part in Staffordshire University Diversity Award, 200

- Project having been conducted in different venues since 2002: Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme (New Vic Theatre), Stafford, Hanley Park.

Story of the work

“This piece started when I first arrived in UK, from France, in 2002. I was feeling very isolated and frustrated by the barrier of the language. As an art student, I addressed this issue by going to people and asking them to answer a couple of questions on a piece of paper (what are the most important … date, person, object, place in your life? what do you love?). Over the years, it became an ever-growing, interactive and itinerant mobile.”

“I consider this project as a spiritual piece. I see it as a continuous attempt to look at what people have in common, beyond cultures, religions and languages. The time when you read other people’ answers and when you write your own is a time of reflection and sharing. The papers chosen* are usually used for different rituals in China and other countries but similar practices can be found all around the world in various religions or traditions: Ex-Voto in Catholicism, Wishing Trees, Ema (Japan) …”

*Hell/heaven money, ghost or spirit money, Joss paper

On show at the Central Library 1st floor - Nottingham

I have been invited to take part in an exhibition for the national Refugee week, along with other artists.

I am very pleased to have the piece shown in a library where people already read, write, day dream, think ....

Preparations 

First images of the installation at the library

"What do you love ?" - travelling kit preparations

The interactive ever growing mobile was made to travel around the world.

Over the Christmas holidays, I worked at a dismantable table that will go inside the mobile for people to write their answers.

I have also started to look for suitcases to transport the whole thing as well as the translation booklets....

To see more about "What do you love ?", click here.

(for better understanding, scroll down and start form the 1st post)