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13/11/2008

Transleat me

Independent Exhibition Venue, Athens

Guest curator
Natalia Arcos

Curator
Zoi Pappa

In March 2001 in Germany, Armin Meiwes posted an Internet ad asking for ''a well built 18 to 30 year old to be slaughtered and consumed''. The ad was answered by Bernd Jürgen Brandes. After killing and eating Brandes, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and later, murder.

The contemporary art exhibition Transleat me takes the concept of translation to a physical level. It is not only our words that can become misinterpreted in translations—our ideas and personalities can be distorted in the process where the translator wields a crushing power. The expression to eat someone else alive suggests a desire of absolute power over someone else.

Transleat me aims to create a space for us to see how we may present ourselves in an atmosphere of infinite misunderstanding. Based on the idea of Translation as a device of manipulation and power, Transleat me explores the notions of self-destruction, unconditional surrender, and cannibalism.

Among ''modern'' human beings, “cannibalistic” social behavior has been practiced between inefficient/vulnerable and charismatic translators. In this game, antisocial forces that manifest as profiteering and voracity are to a high degree responsible for the lack of sense we all experience. In the world of hyper-information we are incapacitated when it comes to defining where the truth begins and where the lie ends, while the universal power structure forces media and translators to serve its systemic purpose to control the masses. The failure that is an inherent risk in processes of translation can constitute a form of castration of the individual that renders him/her incapable of getting satisfaction, understanding and acceptance.

18 artists from different cultural backgrounds will be exhibiting their work. Each artist takes on the challenge in Transleat me in their own individual manner: they comment, sneer and smirk, attack- give in- negotiate, are consumed- digest- vomit- refuse to swallow, threaten, humor and consistently rechew the cuds of presumed truth in their strive for fair interpretation.
The variety of artistic media includes sculpture, painting, video, performance, photography and installations, along with the artists’ diverse ideological approaches offer a finger-on-the-pulse view of the contemporary scene.

Transleat me is part of Platform Translation. “Platform Translation” is a travelling project involving artists from South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Its main purpose is to explore the concept of translation through artistic practices and critical discourse. The project includes exhibitions in five cities: Athens (November, 2008), Santiago de Chile (May, 2009), and Rome, Beirut, and Berlin during 2009.

In every country a local curator is invited to develop a reading of the concept from the point of view of his/her particular cultural context; he/she takes on the responsibility to invite local artists to participate in the show. Each curator will make an intervention in the preceding and following exhibition. In Transleat me we will host the intervention of the curator of the exhibition in Chile Natalia Arcos with the artists Francisco Papas Fritas and Joaquín Ortúzar. In May 2009, the intervention of Athens will follow at the ‘Centro de Extensión de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’, in Santiago of Chile with participating artists Michalis Theodosiadis and Zoi Pappa and in Beirut of Lebanon.

Participating artists: Dimitris Ameladiotis, Marwa Arsanios, Elena Bellantoni, Adonis Volanakis, Michalis Theodosiadis, Carolina Hoehman, Irini Karayannopoulou,Harris Kondosphyris, Manos Kornelakis, Anna Lagiou Tsouloufi, Joaquín Ortúzar, Zoi Pappa, Francisco Papas Fritas Tom Robinson, Nana Sahini, The Erasers, Soledad Pinto, Fransisca Sanchez.

Platiform Translation’s core group
Marwa Arsanios, Elena Bellantoni, Michalis Theodosiadis , Soledad Pinto

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