Event detail
LIVING LANGUAGE
In recognition of 2008 as the United Nations’ International Year of Languages, this exhibition celebrates linguistic diversity and encourages visitors to explore both their own languages and those of others. LIVING LANGUAGE combines textual and audio materials, interactive displays and artists' works inspired by language. It explores the ways we as humans communicate, the diversity of our scripts and voices and the role of language in expressing our cultural identities.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Sabah Arbilli, Jen Frazer, Denise Hawrysio, Stefanos Pavlakis, Orkideh Sassouni, Annet Stirling, John Wynne, Fiona Zobele.
This exhibition has been developed in partnership with the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, SOAS, CILT - the National Centre for Languages, and the London Education Research Unit, Institute of Education, London.
LIVING LANGUAGE was made possible by the generous support of AXIS EUROPE.
The United Nations proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages. Mr Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO said:
“Languages are indeed essential to the identity of groups and individuals and to their peaceful coexistence ... We must enable each linguistic community to use its first language, or mother tongue, as widely and as often as possible, while also mastering a national or regional language and an international language. Also, by encouraging speakers of a dominant language to master other languages. UNESCO invites governments, United Nations organisations … and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to foster respect for, and the promotion and protection of all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.”
This exhibition is a celebration of the diversity of London and the richness of our linguistic and cultural heritage. The diversity of languages spoken in London is rivaled only by New York - our city is a key place where cultures and voices from around the world live and work together. We hope that LIVING LANGUAGE can introduce an area of interest that is relevant to all of us, and as broad and diverse as we want it to be. Interest in languages is not just for linguists and language specialists, and not just for those of us who speak more than one language. It affects us all – we hear diverse languages spoken around us in London each day, and every language enriches the social and cultural life of the people who live, work and visit the city. Each language is a window into another culture, to new friends and neighbours.
The works exhibited here provide a glimpse of just some of the areas that language incorporates. John Wynne’s Hearing Voices explores the highly complex click-languages and the songs and histories of the Khoi and San peoples of the Kalahari desert. The calligraphic works, manuscripts and carvings represent a few of the many different scripts, current and ancient, we use to express ourselves. Orkideh Sassouni’s photographs on sign language and Fiona Zobole’s textual pieces explore how touch, sign and gesture add to our palette of communication tools. Stefanos Pavlakis’ work addresses the role of language in our attempts to integrate into new places.
These different elements do of course highlight the variety of our languages and cultures. They also, we hope, identify the similarities we all share. No matter what our mother tongue, language provides us with ways of expressing subtle details, emotions and abstract ideas. Many theories exist on how languages originally ‘began’, but one thing we can be sure of is that where different cultures and languages meet, languages change, languages die, and new languages emerge.
Curation: Nathalie Palin
Design: Jen Fraser
http://www.east-potential.org.uk/gallery
