Q&A with Nicoline van Harskamp and invited experts
Nicoline van Harskamp, PDGN, 2016, set photograph, photography by Javi Zilbermann
Curator and writer Mihnea Mircan has been commissioned by BAK to write an essay on the occasion of Englishes, the exhibition by Nicoline van Harskamp. This text is published online at bakonline.org. A public reading of the text by Mircan takes place on Friday 28 October 2016, on the occasion of a Q&A with the artist and a number of invited experts, including Ogaday Willers Moore of e-2.org, London, who co-developed the software used for the creation of the language spoken in van Harskamp’s new work PDGN.
The exhibition depicts the development of the plurality of spoken English that displaces the perceived position of primacy occupied by dominant strains of the language. Addressing the political import of this linguistic development, the works point to how our use of language is consistently entrenched in structures of class and power. Challenging these connotations, van Harskamp proposes a dissolution of English into “Englishes,” co-opting it as a common and ever-growing linguistic resource. Englishes thus becomes a site of solidarity—be that through the expressivity of speech or by a claimed common right to edit.
The program begins at 19.30 hrs in the Marnixzaal of the Utrechts Centrum voor de Kunsten, Domplein 4, Utrecht. To accompany the evening’s program, BAK will have extended opening hours to make a visit to the exhibition before the Q&A possible. After the event BAK will also be open for visitors and drinks. The event is free of charge.
