Tableaux vivants
Billboards in public space

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2015, 16 billboards, 89,5 x 128 cm, mirror foil, UV-print..

For the exhibition “Décalage, translation in intercultural contexts” by Westfenster Bern, several interpreters were interviewed about their complex tasks in the legal, medical, educational and social fields. Based on these interviews, a selection of statements in the interpreters' different mother tongues and alphabets were printed on reflective foil and presented on eight billboards that reflect a district of the city with wide range of ethnic and cultural diversity. The quotes represent the complex realities of the interpreters, but they also reflect each other and involve the viewers, who get involved through their reflection on the billboard. The mirroring poster thus become dynamic, even moving images that include their lively surroundings. They form an individual and a collective portrait, an arrangement in which the statements sketch out a bigger picture, thereby setting up a reciprocal interaction in relation to the viewer and the environment: thus they render the situation and the individual reflections of the translator visible. “It's not just about language, but also about persons, their migration stories and the manifold difficulties of intercultural translation.”