MASH UP

Jens Haaning(DK)
Olof Olsson(SE/DK)
Lilibeth Cuenca(PH/DK)
Shimabuku(JP/GE)
Kaoru Katayama(JP/ES)
Detanico & Lain(BR/FR)
Shigeyuki Kihara(WS/NZ)
Finn Ferrier(NZ)
Carla Zaccagnini(AR/BR),
Copenhagen Brains for COPYSHOP(DK).

Curated by Julia Rodrigues

MASH UP investigates how artistic practices reframe processes of translation. Taking Walter Benjamin’s ‘The task of the translator’ as a conceptual guideline, the scope on cultural translation is reinforced by the theories of the Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos. This show explores differences, coexistence, relationships between language and codes, public and private, semiology and cryptography. How much of one culture can be communicated by another culture? How do borders operate? Can translation be a tool to identify cultural interrelations or even deal with cultural differences?

To comprehend any cultural phenomenon, it’s necessary to consider translocal systems. Contact between differences is becoming increasingly common due to the intense circulation of people, goods, capital and information. Despite the continued existence of boundaries, they no longer act as the sole barometer of classified cultural value.

This current intense and accelerated contact between cultures—by migrations, communication medias and technologies—makes the focus on translation timely, understood not just as textual or literary but also as a cultural process

MASH UP was presented as part of Auckland festival 2009, and had been awarded the Premio Curadoria 2008 Centro Cultural Sao Paulo.