English version below
Einladung zur Ausstellung
» My task
«
von
Stephen Lapthisophon (Chicago)
„Der Künstler hat so viel
gelesen, dass er selbst schon fast ein Philosoph ist.
In Berlin erstellt er eine Installation mit Walter Benjamin im Sinn.“
Veranstalter: Kunstverein INGAN e.V.,
Kurator: Andreas Greußlich
Vernissage: 27. Juni 15-23 Uhr
Finissage: 28. Juni 15–23 Uhr
Ort: Rosenthaler Str. 71 / HH (2. Stock)
Info:
http://www.ingan.gmxhome.de/aktuell.htm
"My Tradition My Heritage My Voice"
Installation im Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago:
Sound + gefundene Objekte, Juli 2005
Persönliche
Stellungnahme von Stephen Lapthisophon:
Ich
werde für die Ausstellung die ortsbezogene Installation „My Task“
realisieren, die mit Klang, gefundenen Objekten und Material, das ich im
vorhinein per Post von Chicago nach Berlin sandte, umgeht. Die Installation
bezieht sich auf die Themen Übersetzung und Vermittlung. Fragen der Distanz,
Dauer, Verschiebung und des Umwegs werden verhandelt. Die Installation wird der
Nachweis einer Handlung – einer durchgeführten und öffentlich gemachten Aktion
mit Aufmerksamkeit auf die sozialen Strukturen, die diese Aktion ermöglichen
und den emotionalen Verbindungen, innerhalb dieser Strukturen. Diese Arbeit
geht darum, wie wir Kontakt zu unseren Mitmenschen aufbauen. Sie ist temporär,
kurzzeitig, abhängig vom Moment und, wie jede menschliche Handlung und Sprache,
zum Scheitern verurteilt.
Die
Arbeit benutzt einige Texte als Arbeitsgrundlage:
Walter
Benjamin „Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers“ und Kommentare dazu von Paul DeMan und Jacques Derrida
„Dagegen
kann, ja muß dem Sinn gegenüber ihre Sprache sich
gehen lassen, um nicht dessen intentio als Wiedergabe, sondern als Harmonie, als
Ergänzung zur Sprache, in der diese sich mitteilt, ihre eigene Art der intentio
ertönen zu lassen. Es ist daher, vor allem im Zeitalter ihrer Entstehung, das
höchste Lob einer Übersetzung nicht, sich wie ein Original ihrer Sprache zu
lesen. Viel mehr ist eben das die Bedeutung der Treue, welche durch Wörtlichkeit
verbürgt wird, daß die große Sehnsucht nach
Sprachergänzung aus dem Werke spreche. Die wahre Übersetzung ist
durchscheinend, sie verdeckt nicht das Original, steht ihm nicht im Licht,
sondern läßt die reine Sprache, wie verstärkt durch
ihr eigenes Medium, nur um so voller aufs Original fallen. Das vermag vor allem
Wörtlichkeit in der Übertragung der Syntax und gerade sie erweist das Wort,
nicht den Satz als das Urelement des Übersetzers. Denn der Satz ist die Mauer
vor der Sprache des Originals, Wörtlichkeit die Arkade.“
Zitat
aus: Walter Benjamin, "Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers"
Informationen zum
Künstler in englischer Sprache am Ende dieses Dokumentes.
Invitation
» My task «
by Stephen Lapthisophon (Chicago)
„This artist has read so much, that it seems he is a philosopher.
In
Berlin he’s making an installation with Walter Benjamin
in mind.“
Organizer: Kunstverein INGAN e.V.
Vernissage: 27. Juni, 3–11 pm
Finissage: 28. Juni, 3–11 pm
Place: Rosenthaler Str. 71
/ HH (2. Floor)
Info:
http://www.ingan.gmxhome.de/aktuell_e.htm
"My
Tradition My Heritage My Voice"
Installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: Sound + found objects,
July 2005
Personal
Statement by Stephen Lapthisophon:
I will be presenting “My Task” a site specific
installation with sound, found objects and material sent in the mail from
Chicago to Berlin. The installation is concerned with translation and
transmission. It addresses questions of distance, duration, displacement and
detour. This work is really a record of an activity – an action performed and
displayed in order to call attention to the social structures which give
permission to this activity and the emotional structures bridging these
structures. The piece is about how we
make contact with our fellows. It is temporary, ephemeral,
dependent on the momentary and like all human activity and language, destined
for failure.
The work uses a number of texts as source:
Walter Benjamin, "The Task of the
Translator" + Commentaries on that
essay by Paul DeMan and Jacques Derrida
“On the other hand, as regards the meaning, the
language of a translation can -- in fact, must -- let itself go, so that it gives
voice to the intentio
of the original not as reproduction but as harmony, as a supplement to the
language in which it expresses itself, as its own kind of intentio. Therefore it is not the
highest praise of a translation, particularly in the age of its origin, to say
that it reads as if it had originally been written in that language. Rather,
the significance of fidelity as ensured by literalness is that the work
reflects the great longing for linguistic complementation. A real translation
is transparent; it does not cover the original, doe snot black its light, but
allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its own medium to shine upon
the original all the more fully. This may be achieved, above all, by a literal
rendering of the syntax which proves words rather than sentences to be the
primary element of the translator. For if the sentence is the wall before the
language of the original, literalness is the arcade.”
Cited from: Walter Benjamin, "The Task
of the Translator"
About the artist
Stephen Lapthisophon is a multimedia artist and writer
whose work addresses questions of language, history and cultural memory. Recent
solo exhibitions include Static
at Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas (2003), With
Reasonable Accommodation at Gallery 400 in Chicago (2002) and Defense d'Afficher
at TBA Exhibition Space (2000), also in
Chicago. His work has also been seen at Artists Space in New York, the
High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and in Chicago at Gallery 312, N.A.M.E. and Randolph Street galleries. Lapthisophon is
also represented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Chicago.
In March 2004, Lapthisophon’s work was seen in the
Chicago Loop in the Open Studio Program working publicly on a temporary site-specific
wall painting as well as a 90 minute video work, The Failure of Modern Politics. In addition the installation
with sound Amanuensis (I Hear a Symphony)
was presented at the College of DuPage in Glen Elyn, Illinoiswith a catalogue
essay by Richard Brettell. An interview with the
artist appeared on the Chicago Public Radio program “848” in March.
In January 2004 his sound piece Anonymity
could be heard on State Street in Chicago as part of the public installation
"Sound Canopy" sponsored by the Hyde Park Art Center. As a resident
artist at the Experimental Sound Studio in 2002, Lapthisophon produced the
audio CD the bells, a soundtrack
to his visual novel Hotel Terminus
published by WhiteWalls the previous year. He has
also been a guest lecturer in the "Artists Connect" series at the Art
Institute of Chicago as well as at Northwestern University and the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned an MFA in 1979.
In 2005 Lapthisophon was a visiting artist in Dallas TX , in residence at South
Side on Lamar and teaching at The University of Texas at Dallas in the
department of Art & Humanities. During that stay he participated in group
exhibitions at The Casket Factory with the art collective Oh6 and an exhibition
of drawings at Brookhaven College. Solo exhibitions in Dallas at McKinney
Avenue Contemporary and IR Gallery were followed by
the exhibition Strategy at
Conduit Gallery. Returning to Chicago, Lapthisophon was artist in
residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago where he produced the
installation My Tradition My Heritage My
Voice. Lapthisophon’s most recent
sound piece Shady Aftermath was
produced in 2005 at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago.
Upcoming events include The Failure of
Modern Politics, a performance at the Lake Forest College literary
festival &NOW and My Task, a
solo exhibition/ installation at Kunstverein INGAN in
Berlin