ALPHABET, (Un)folding the line: Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations
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Extract from an intimate conversation with poet and performer Jasmina B.-R.. Full video available below. Created and published by Caroline Bergvall, Dec-Jan 2024.
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In this intimate conversation, Caroline B. and Jasmina B.-R. explore the personal and artistic impact Jasmina has experienced on reconnecting with the Arabic writing alphabet. Watch as Jasmina’s writing hand brings a transformative process to life, and offers us a moving account on the changes this is generating in her project and practice as a whole. Part of the Practice conversations, Caroline Bergvall. Created and published by Caroline Bergvall in Dec 2024.
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ALPHABET, (Un)folding the line: Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations
ALPHABET, (Un)folding the line: Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations
Beginnings are a very delicate thing.
For the past 12 months I have been working behind the scenes on a familial history project “Unfolding the line(s): Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations” that I started in the summer of 2022. The project began as a series of interviews with my mother (Algerian) and my father (Croatian). The first written piece (currently work in progress) coming out of the family materials and investigations I collected is called “Alphabet”; this is a long multilingual poem in prose piece on the letters of the Arabic alphabet, written in English, French, and Arabic, containing calligraphy and text.
Arabic is a heritage language for me, yet it has taken me until now to be brave enough to dive into the language; for that I had to start small - with the letters of the alphabet. I am only at the beginning, but the process of re-discovery has been an extraordinary one. I am able to fully integrate the Arabic sounds and signs of the language passed on to me by my Algerian grandmother in my childhood into my daily art writing practice. To unfold the line(s), recover the lost thread(s), to release the work.
I invite you to listen to the full video, and hope to bring you some exciting updates on my new project soon! 🪬✨
31 December, 2024, Zagreb.