performance with projected subtitles / video13 min
How can speaking a foreign language be reflected upon at the intersection of corporeal, cultural and social systems? In the course of the performance Dialog / Daehwa (대화), we talk about our own personal experiences with living in countries, whose official languages we could not or still cannot fluently speak without stumbling upon difficulties in everyday life. We talk in our native languages. Microphones amplify our voices, however not in the usual way. Instead of being positioned in front of our mouths, they are inserted into them and therefore block our speech-apparatus and suppress our ability to talk and articulate properly. We think of these microphones as both communication channels, that – just like unmastered languages – degrade our usually fluent speech and as listeners in their own way. Thus we’re trying to construct an image of language, that is not only an abstract code but interferes in and shapes the listeners and speakers bodies as well.
2018