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[image of makda embaie]
breaking bread and language / å bryte brød og språk
14.-20. march 2022
makda embaie is working on breaking bread and language / å bryte brød og språk, an ongoing project about the nation-state and its relationship to language. at aerial, between 15.- 20. march 2022, makda hosted several sessions for people with a connection to tigrinya language and diaspora experience to translate texts together. makda has been developing a methodology of translating poetry, that doesn’t require the participants to be able to read or write in the language they translate from. "the workshop aims to carve out a space where people can practice their specific language constellations without it being aligned, compared or corrected into the idea of language that the nation state has".
makda embaie is a poet and artist, educated at konstfack, bishop arnö’s författarskola and at the royal institute of art’s post-master course, decolonizing architecture. she will graduate from an ma in fine art from kunsthøyskolen in Oslo this year, 2022. makda’s artistic practice is expressed through the portrayal, activation and practicing of her own specific experiences of the language. it has revealed components in her language that have to do with space, time and the specific body. it is an experience that negates the nation-state’s linear way of describing people and languages. through installations, sound, text, film and photography, makda shifts the focus from the narrative of the nation-state to the specific experience of language. in order to dive into the question of what language would be if it arose here.
[image of people sitting on the floor litening
to makda embaie]
[image of people sitting and standing, watching a tx screen with makda embaies video playing]
the project is supported by kulturrådet, bek and bergen kommune. the conversation was in collaboration with borealis.