Carrying the Songs
TYPE OF PROJECT
PROJECT AREA
A story is told and recorded on Inis Mór, a small island off the West coast of Ireland. That story is retold, from person to person, travelling across Ireland and Europe, through Scandinavia to Istanbul. Along the way, it is translated, processed by peoples’ own memories, experiences and cultures. Layers are added and other layers are forgotten and let go. In parallel with the metamorphosis of this story, a drawing undergoes the same process. It starts on the Western edge of Europe and is passed from from artist to artist, participant to participant, all the way to the Eastern edge of Europe. Each participant makes changes to the drawing, so it also undergoes a gradual metamorphosis.
About the Project
About the Project
Outputs and Results
Outputs and Results
Coordinators and Partners
Coordinators and Partners
Performers and Organizers
Performers and Organizers
Gallery
Gallery
The game is called Chinese Whispers in English, Stille Post in German, Gluchy Telefon in Polish, Rikkinäinen Puhelin in Finnish, katkine telefon in Estonian, sugedęs telefonas in Lithuanian, Развален телефон in Bulgarian. On this scale, it is a powerful project which explores notions of memory, sense of place, language, communication and rumour, landscape and migration. It is a project which engages people from twenty different European countries in an exploration of both our commonalities and our differences while creating a collective artwork.
This giant game of Chinese whispers started in the Galway Gaeltacht in March 2020. Originating on Inis Mór with a story and a drawing (as Gaeilge), it wound its way through the different Gaeltacht and English-speaking regions of Ireland, before heading out across Europe.
The story started with a young story teller Liam O Flaithearta on the island. The story has been told person to person using ZOOM, and recorded each time. As it traversed regions, it is changed dramatically and after one week was already unrecognisable from the original story. It was translated from Irish to English – and back again – sixteen times. As language is characterised by landscape and culture, it continued to change and since leaving Ireland has been told in Scots Gaelic, English, Welsh, French, Breton, Occitan, Catalan, Basque, Kikongo, Swabian, Swiss German, German, Flemish, Friesian, Danish, Swedish, Arabic, Norrsjö Bonska, Norwegian, Sami, Meänkieli, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Mulgi, Võro, Seto, Livonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Spanish, Polish, Kashubian, Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian, Esperanto, Slovene, Austrian German, Persian, Samburu, Italian, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Armenian and Kurdish.