FOUND IN TRANSLATION, chapter D
A project curated by Emmanuel Lambion (Bn PROJECTS) with
Steven BAELEN, Ermias KIFLEYESUS, Emi KODAMA, Niklaus RUËGG, Bastiaan SCHEVERS, Joris VAN DE MOORTEL
- January 4th to 9th 2010
I like translations, linguistic translations but also, in a more spatial physical or metaphorical sense, translations understood as the subtle, deliberate movement, of a being, a body, an icon, a practice, discipline, an area of knowledge or a concept which, through it’s very displacement, opens up new and freer areas of investigation, research, transmission and perception.
Litterally, translation is something that brings you beyond the usual environment: trans- fero-
Originally used to designate a given mathematical movement, translations convey metaphorically the ideas of displacement, of a subtle shift in norms and codes, through the change of perspective and the sensible apprehension of a genuinely enriching diversity of approaches.
Translations provide both the creator, the mediator and the observer with a glimpse into interstitial horizons.
In the globalized world of ours, and in this even more globalised art world of ours, it is the increasingly essential, seminal privilege of the artists to live, physically and intellectually, the art of translating themselves, their work and their investigations.
From one perspective to the other, from one field/area of knowledge to the other
Of course, there is an inevitable internal translation in the very progressive processual and self reflexive approach often favoured in contemporary creation.
Beyond, In a post-modern approach, artists are of course free to use the formal language of their choice to express and articulate their message and to communicate to their audience.
Beyond, they have indeed the privilege to be allowed to switch languages and to assume the position of the fou du roi, that of the free Logos, independent from the restrictive dictatorship of scientific and technological specialization.
This show, is to be apprhended as the first paragraph of an additive and global curatorial project : it will be integrated in a series of experiments, which will further develop, in different contexts and formats, the variety of apprehensions of the eponymous theme.
It found its quite litteral point of development in the translation of the curator, invited to be a visiting lecturer in a well-known post-graduate diploma in Gent. The counterpart is now the invitation made to these gent-based artists to develop their own variations of the theme in the temporarily self-reconverted Brussels gallery space of Elaine Levy Project.