Between Languages: Language as Artistic Material

The Think.Zone aims to examine the relationships between languages in colonial contexts. Foundational texts by Jacques Derrida, Edouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, and Abdelkébir Khatibi will help us address the issue. The transitions between languages in exile contexts will also be a focus of the Think.Zone, with the writings of Ghérasim Luca, Herta Müller, and Etel Adnan serving as anchor points for our study.

Basically, the questions we will ask concern the relationships between language and image. How can visual work be created using language and writing as materials? Various case studies, drawn from sound and concrete poetry, as well as conceptual and post-conceptual art, will be examined from this perspective.

Moreover, the Think.Zone also intends to give significant attention to the presentation of the participants' work. The circulation between text, writing, language, and the visual register is conceived broadly, ranging from the presentation of artistic practices that employ writing to reflections on how discourse can accompany visual work in situations of critical sessions or juries.

Image: Senzeni Marasela, Letters to Theodorah, 2009