Blurrylingualism – encounter in between languages
The artistic research project Blurrylingualism – Encounters Between Languages was led by performance artists Florent Golfier-Brechmann, Baxi Ostrowski and Michaela Dašková since 2023. The aim of the project was to explore language concepts through choreographic practice. The artists deconstructed existing language biases, examined physical responses to linguistic incomprehension, and proposed alternative situations for the emergence of other physical responses to them.
In 2024, the project resulted in the creation of a toolkit publication, which is the main output of the entire research. The publication Blurrylingualism – Dancing Between Languages summarizes the original choreographic and linguistic exercises that were created within the project. The launch of the toolkit and the introductory workshop on its use took place on 28/11/2024 in Velký mlýn as part of the event How to Dance with Different Languages - Linguistic Choreography Workshop and Toolkit Launch. During the workshop, the creators shared the exercises and tools they created during the research and which are described in detail in the publication. The exercises playfully work with multilingualism, mixing languages and finding new meaning where the old one disappeared.
Blurrylingualism – Dancing Between Languages
History of the artistic research
The project started in 2023 in Műhely Alapítvány / Workshop Foundation Budapest with the support of Performing Artist Residency of Visegrad Fund.
The core focus was to explore linguistic concepts through choreographic practice. The artists investigated physical reaction to language incomprehension through: The Threshold Theory of R. Land, code-switching concept and experiences of multilinguality. The aim was to look for alternative embodied response to not-understanding and to deconstruct Phillipe Blanchent´s term glottophobia* – prejudice and discrimination through language.
This collaboration is the development of the long term interdisciplinary focus of Golfier-Brechmann and Ostrowski between dance and linguistics (Wrestling with Language 2019, Babel the resonance of language 2019, Babel laboratories 2020–2022) and Daškova artistic interest in analyzing the public speeches (This is not about me, 2021).
The collaboration in 2023 in Workshop Foundation Budapest was conducted in an interdisciplinary group: the Polish curator Anna Majewska facilitated the process and opened an in-depth reflection on collectivity. The dancer-linguist Dr J. Pędisz supported and will continue to nourish the research with scientific content. The light designer Zuzanna Režná participated in the studio research to find a performative formulation of the ideas and concepts.
During their research the artists developed several practices based on juggling with the codes of dance and linguistics such as:
Etymology Tree – a graphic game with possible ancestors and descendants of a chosen term, that are based on the visual form, their vocalization and semantic or semiotic meaning.
Polyphonia – a verbal game based on collective and synchronized repetition of one word till some participant slowly transforms it to another slightly different word that is being collectively repeated. The result is the instant developpement of a collective poetry nourished from the all participant languages and associations.
DoSay – a playful score with the shifts between a physical movement (participant 1), descriptive translations of the movement (participant 2) and its reconstruction by some third participant who does not see the original movement. The subjects/focus points of the description are: the physicality of the movements, sensations they bring, relation to space, associations and poetic explanations of the before mentioned. All in all, it creates a peculiar somatic state of an embodied reflection on language and movement.
TongueTalk – based on materials developed in Poetic or Speculative etymology (possibly through Etymology Tree or Polyphonia), to take the form of a short performative lecture in which speech and movement perpetuate themselves.
During the research, artists developed movement scores working with paraverbal communication and proceeded with various scores of commentary reading as well as modality of the embodiment of foreign language phrases.
Timeline of the research with additional materials are available online.
The residency was organized with support of Performing Artists Residency Visegrad Fund program and Culture Moves Europe Mobility Grant.
The creative team
Authors:: Baxi Ostrowski, Florent Golfier-Brechmann, Michaela Dašková
Collective processes facilitator: Anna Majewska
Linguistic consultant: dr hab. Joanna Pędzisz (UMCS Lublin)
Graphic designer: Zuzana Hořavová
Lighting research: Zuzana Režná
Production: tYhle, Ludmila Šindlerová
Photo credit: Magda Rymarz
Acknowledgements: Ágnes Kertész, Laura Golfier-Brechmann, Dorottya Mátravölgyi, Gergely Talló, Monika Węgrzynowicz, Karolina Graca, Dominika Wiak, Tímea Laza, Rhythms of Resistance Budapest, Anna Biczók, Zuzanna Berendt, prof. Barbara Mertins, Markéta Perroud, Zuzana Režná
Partners: University of Marie Curie Skłodowska in Lublin (UMCS), Kraków Choreographic Center, Visegrad fund, Culture Moves Europe program, Workshop Foundation (HU), Adam Mickiewicz Institute ve Varšavě, Dom Utopii Art and Education Centre, Velký mlýn
This work was produced with the financial support of the European Union. The views expressed herein cannot be construed as the official views of the European Union.
The project was created as part of the year-long activities of tYhle with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and of the City of Prague.
