Poetry in Translation - A Poetry & Media Art Event.

Public Event : Chapter Art Centre 7th May 18.00

 

Poet from Wales - Philip Gross - who wrote Spoor

Poet from Holland - Tsead Bruinja - who wrote Bed & Grave

Media Art : Glenn Davidson

Translation : Alexis Nouss

 

The Event - Commissioned by the TransEuropa Festival in celebration of Europe week from 9th May 2011.

 

Dates:

4 & 6 April: The Poets poetry journeys; reciprocal trips between Cardiff and Amsterdam.

6th April in Cardiff : A lecture for translators, drawn from various exhibitions and media works by the artist.

7th April in Cardiff: A workshop with both poets, Glenn and Alexis and translators from the School of European Studies Cardiff; examined the linguistic complexities and cultural nuances, raised by the commissioned poems, perhaps an ultimate challenge to the idea of translation.

7th May Chapter Art Centre Cardiff : Public event Poetry Translation and TXT2EU.

 

The commission:

Part A : A framework, devised by Glenn and Alexis for the exchange of poetry, written whilst in motion crossing Europe, ideas and impressions of the train journey were to colour and influence the process of creative writing. This involved inviting two outstanding poets, Philip Gross and Tsead Bruinji, on mirror journeys to visit one another's home cities. Each was to write a poem and present it in Cardiff for further investigation.

Part B: Following a workshop (see below) the poems are being translated into more than 10 languages, an act of displacement... a term which refers to the root of the word translation. So poems in transit are further translated into many languages. This conceptual ground is a meditation on Europe's cultural migration and the global Diaspora. The project outcomes, poems and translations, will be published as a book.

Real-time translation
Students and staff have used mobile phones to instantly publish their textual throughts, using the artists TXT2* software. A line, "I am out of my languages", taken from Philips poem Spoor, formed a short provocation which was texted and projected onto a screen for all to read. The room burst into activity, and within around four minutes a series of translated versions emerged, line by line below the first. Witnessing this was a fascinating experience, for the first time those present witnessed something of the nature/nurture conflict within the term translation. These short pieces of projected text turned out not to be copies at all, but completely new, and therefore displaced, originals!

The Chapter event on the 7th April 2011
Poems, poets, translators, media projection and live txting will provide an array of engagement. The poets will read, the translators will present their new translated originals. The Poets will use the txting system to write a Heiku (a short poem) which the translators will translate, before the floor is opened up to everyone to join in. So make sure you bring a phone!

Background to the poets
Philip Gross, who was awarded T.S.Eliot award for 2009, was introduced to this project by Glenn, they met through a poetry film project in 2010. Philips father reached Britain from Estonia in 1946 as, officially, a Displaced Person. Philip is currently writing about him in a new book, which is entirely about the travelling, the being in motion, of his father's displacement...And so a travelling poetry proposal appealed and the outcome, the poem Spoor, exposes glimpses of his father's life in reflections of himself, within a universal frame of rail tracks and landscape (matter) and continuum (time).

Tsead Bruinja, is short listed to be Amsterdam's poet laureate, he was bought into the project through the TransEuropa Festival. We are more than happy to be working together. Tsead's work immediately resonates with place, with family and life cycle, his poem Bed & Grave forming this project is grounded in a notion of the well known or fond journey.

Images above:Glenn Davidson

*Artstation gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr Ian Grimstead and the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

 

An experiment into autopoietic process.