'warped vowels', part of final presentations within research project gränsen, at Cimatheque, Cairo, 3.3.18

On March 3rd, Wildow's research project gränsen, in collaboration with Nadah El Shazly, Mohammed A. Gawad, Adham Hafez, Alva Willemark, Erik Malmsten, and produced by Sarah El Miniawy, will have its final presentations at Cimatheque, Cairo. The project was initiated by Wildow in early 2017, as one concerned with the act of translation. When not speaking each other's mother tongues, when language it self performs the very border of comprehension, what kind of disparate translations of each other's work can we generate? Can we allow for our works to go errant, get lost, die, and be reborn in another's mouth? Can something utterly other be set in motion in a gap of hybridised languages? These were some of the questions post by Wildow as she invited two Swedish speaking and four Arabic speaking artists to a one year long relation. 

The project has generated a cluster of interweaved works, to be presented at Cimatheque in Cairo on March 3rd, 2018. Displayed above is a sketch for Wildow's piece warped vowels, to be screen printed on handmade paper made from rice straws at Al Nafeza in Cairo. Al Nafeza is a small paper-making and screen printing workshop with a re-made falafel machine, which they use to make papers and at the same time to prevent pollution from extensive burning of rice straws in the city. warped vowels is one of Wildow's two pieces attempting to translate the song “Barzakh” by Nadah El Shazly. The translating process have generated five dislocated poems, moving through different known and unknown languages, here layered into a pattern.

warped vowels have been made in collaboration with Moa Edlund and Sam Carlshamre, with great support from Sarah El Miniawy. gränsen is made possible with support of The Swedish Arts Grants Committee (Konstnärsnämnden).