The 2026-27 year begins with the collective memory workshop
I Love it When Translation Can Be Found to Agree With Our Weird DesiresAlaa Abu Asad and Ulufer Çelik
Do you know what şemsiye – ﺷﻤﺴﯿّﺔ means? Do you use the word kırbaç – ﻛﺮﺑﺎج for a whip? For around ten years, we have been asking each other about identical words used in both of our languages: Turkish and (vernacular) Palestinian Arabic. It is a process that can last for good – as long as our friendship lives. We spend time together uttering words that are held in common and draw them, discovering whether they carry the same meaning, are slightly different, or are false friends. We listen to music and use its lyrics, collect anecdotes and play games––attempting at communicating through “the lack of language”, and emphasising what is different.
Through a performance of uttering the words in Arabic and Turkish to each other, we will introduce ourselves and the project. Then we will introduce the word list for the memory game. Each participant / student is asked to introduce themselves, the place they come from and choose a word from the list to read and to tell us its meaning in their mother tongue. Then, each will choose 2 to 3 words and draw their “meaning” on the card. Music is playing in the background. When the cards with the words and their drawing are completed, we will start playing the game. We will play and talk, laugh and have fun. Hopefully, we will have a winner too.
Alaa Abu Asad is an artist and photographer whose work takes the form of images and writing. Language and plants are central themes through which he develops alternative trajectories where values of (re)presentation, translation, viewing, reading, and understanding can come together.
Ulufer Çelik (b. 1992, Antalya) is a Turkish/Dutch artist, who lives and works in Rotterdam. Her artistic practice explores the potentialities of narrative and myth-making, that is expressed through drawing, words, felt making, and sound.