Guest workshop: Translation
This workshop is a collective exploration of the potentials of translation, through the recognition of new forms of reading and knowledge. It is supervised by poet and graphic designer Alix Chauvet.
the workshop
Instead of seeing translation as an objective way to make foreign texts more accessible, the workshop will explore it as an experimental creative practice through otherness, involving both playfulness and critical thinking. The shift from one language to another inevitably induces a metamorphosis, not only of the source but also of the real it conveys. Translation will thus be approached as an intimate engagement rather than a quest for fidelity, acknowledging the linguistic, historical and personal biases on which it unfolds. Embracing surprises and self-awareness, the workshop invites participants to recognise and tap into the distortion power of translation.
It compels them towards an accountancy of the voices they enhance or mute—towards an awareness of the political implications of their practice.
The word “translation” is itself a bendable term, covering any act involving language. The workshop will explore this plasticity, taking a closer look at examples that challenge the fondations and edges of the process, notably the assumption of a “secondariness” in relation to an original or a dependancy to a textual source.
Rather than transmitting dumbed-down knowledge, Alix will share her interest in the spaces of “in betweenness” opened by (inter-, intra-linguistic and intra-semiotic) translations, offering mutual opportunities for growth: self & other, distance & closeness, accident & intention, past & contemporary, play & responsibility, history & speculation, fixity & versions, body & tongue, language & culture, “cliché & catastrophe,” and so forth…
to whom the workshop is addressed
It is geared towards experienced writers (writers with a practice, who are no longer beginners) who aspire to experiment with translation as a creative frame. Having a background in translation is not a prerequisite.
The workshop invites participants to share translations (both from other writers and personal creations) that nuance, question or resist power structures and hegemonic trends (especially through experimental, decolonial, feminist revisions).
logistics & application
The workshop will take place over 6 iterations of 3 hours, every other week, on Saturday, between 11:00 and 14:00:
- 22 November
- 6 December
- 10 January
- 24 January
- 7 March
- 21 March
The first half of each session will be dedicated to a discussion of an essay on translation, paired with a translation that illustrates and/or challenges the essay’s point of view. These texts will be read in advance of each session. The second half will be devoted to presenting and sharing feedback on texts produced by the participants—outcomes of a jointly defined assignment.
The workshop will be given in English, and the preferred language for written work is English.
Total price of participation: €199,00 (ex. 9% VAT)
Please send us a short text explaining what your practice consists of, your motivations for attending this workshop, and your expectations of it. Perhaps you could share a personal translation.
Send your motivation to studie@perdu.nl before the 8th of November.
biography
Alix Chauvet (b. Geneva, 1995) is a Swiss-French poet and graphic designer based in Amsterdam, taking pleasure in the possibilities of translation. Investigating the relationships between language and body, intimacy and collectivity, past and contemporary, her hybrid practice covers a wide range of visual and linguistic experiments – from artist’s book design to experimental translations.
Her method is rooted in slowing down the creative process through the use of analogue and unprofitable techniques such as cut-outs, letterpress, linocut, handwriting and painting. Her poetic approach follows the same logic, prioritising English over her mother tongue as a way to revise language with both critical detachment and a degree of identification.
Her poems appeared in literary magazines such as Blackbox Manifold. Cyclamen, a compilation of unfaithful poems after Baudelaire, is Chauvet’s debut collection.