ABSTRACT

Naming the world allows us to craft the definitions of reality. However, the dynamics of language are anchored to geopolitical power dynamics, which often create barriers, in addition to physical human-made borders in the built environment. Just To Get Around explores the intersection of languages and sites in the linguistic barrier that a group of Latin American women encounter whilst living in London. The project conveys narratives tied to the nostalgia of identity and culture in the form of site-specific audio guides interwoven in Spanish and English, aiming to capture the experience of grappling with thoughts and self-expression in both, one's native language and a foreign tongue as a site of cultural translation. The iterations of this work are documented through an online portfolio, with background research presented in (Step)Mother Tongue, an artist book weaved in two languages, and Foreign Langscapes, a six-minute film.

In the UK context, linguistic barriers not only stem from differences in languages; but also, from cultural and social dynamics. The immigrant experience is often accompanied by loneliness, emphasised by gender, age, and ethnicity. As a way of encountering these barriers in a less daunting way, LAWA (Latin American Women’s Aid), a feminist organisation in London, created Growing Together, a group comprised of older Latin American Women who live in London and struggle to speak in English. Latins in the United Kingdom are one of the fastest-growing communities, looking for better opportunities, quality of life or as a means of survival. In the realm of global diversity, London stands as one of the most multicultural cities, where various languages co-exist and cross-pollinate. English, understood as a lingua franca can be visualised as a quilt language- multi-layered and composed of various “Englishes”.

Just To Get Around is an ongoing project in collaboration with Growing Together. Every two weeks we got together to (re)discover and walk around different sites around London to learn basic words in English to (re)name the landscape, and compare the different meanings of words in Spanish and English, as lexical forms render cultural discourses. Sherry Simon, a translation researcher, describes the act of translation as a product of cultural hybridity. Guy Debord, a member of the Situationist International, focused on elevating daily activities such as walking around the city as a tool to produce art and culture through what he called psychogeographies. Walking together creates a safe place to explore the city where conversations in our language and culture, would arise from the physical and contextual environments we were exploring as a collective rather than as individuals. Deirdre Heddon, art historian, and Cathy Turner, a member of Wrights and Sites, an artist-researchers' group, point out how walking art practices have been produced and reproduced mostly by men. Just To Get Around resonates with this need to explore the urban realm beyond a masculinist voice, and (re) imaging sites through Latin American immigrant women’s voices and footsteps.

After reading about the project -> Click on the rotating images to explore the sites we visited together. The sites are numbered chronologically.

ABOUT PROGRESS FILM LIVE INTERVENTION ARTIST’S BOOK

2022-2023

ANDREA IZURIETA | SITUATED PRACTICE

After reading about the project ->
Click on the rotating images to explore the
sites we visited together. The sites are
numbered chronologically.

ABOUT
PROGRESS
FILM
LIVE INTERVENTION
ARTIST’S BOOK