Shadow speak
Special Project @ 4th International Çanakkale Bienniale, Mahal Art Center, 2015
Light-text installation, Eva Beierheimer/Miriam Laussegger
Atlas of Poetry in eleven languages, assembled by A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh
The biennial’s title “Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War” (Plato) deals with the memory of the First World War, in connection with its 100th anniversary. “Shadow, Speak You Too” at Mahal Art Space is an artistic anthology of poetry in eleven languages that reflects the multicultural mosaic of Çanakkale around 1915, languages which were later forbidden to be spoken in public in Turkey during the 20th century.
The poetry selection was assembled by A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh and focuses on the context of war and death. It includes poetry by Anne Blonstein, Constantine P. Cafavy, Else Lasker-Schüler, Sigmund Freud, Hannah Arendt, Psalms, Ibn Arabi, Sinan Antoon, Ossip Mandelstam, Sherko Bekas, Vazha Pshavela, Paul Celan, Hrant Dink, Ece Ayhan, Forough Farrokhzad, Hovhaness Hovhanessian.
The texts are presented in their original languages as a video piece by Eva Beierheimer and Miriam Laussegger. The video projects the texts merging and dissolving into each other, breaking down the borders between letters and languages. The entire art space is transformed into an open book. The projections are transformed by the shape and shadows of the architecture as well as the visitors, who become part of the installation.
