written by Diana Menestrey, Alejandra Martinez, Laura Acosta, Andrés Abril, Esthel Vogrig and Lina Moreno
video Editing by Nina Dubois
Linguistic Despecho from Something Other on Vimeo.
Prologue from Lina:
This is a video screen-recording of a Google document in which a group of people write together, erase and write again.
I invited a group of friends to write, simultaneously and from different parts of the world, about the experience of adopting a second language after migrating, and how this has opened or closed possibilities –perceptual, experiential or relational.
Our writing explores the ways in which language can be oppressive, but also touches on how we have used it to open possibilities for ourselves. We ask, how do we communicate these new possibilities to our families, friends and communities who don’t speak the language through which they came to exist?
It’s a conversation about collective language making and migrant experience; not having the vocabulary to talk about claiming language. Our heads move fast, we think about disordering words but this is also how our heads sound all the time. It is an urgent and endless conversation.
The piece was written collaboratively by six artists and writers of latin american origin who have immigrated to different parts of the world in different circumstances and at different times and have adopted a second language in their daily lives.
Something Other 