The new exhibition at Arter, GLOSSOLALALA, showcases individual works by Johanna Gustafsson Fürst and Dilek Winchester, crafted in diverse locations and mediums. The exhibition facilitates encounters and negotiations by assembling these pieces on common ground, delving into the potential for communal experiences and cultivating a polyphonic community through distinct artistic practices. Central to the exhibition is the exploration of language, with the displayed works bridging language through sound, text, body, and space.
GLOSSOLALALA, the exhibition’s title, is a newly coined term—a neologism—derived from “glossolalia,” which refers to the ability to speak in unknown and invented languages. GLOSSOLALALA ventures into formal and existential realms, grappling with the divisions and connections engendered by language, expanding beyond its conventional use for rhythmic or poetic expression. By envisioning a realm beyond language within language itself, by viewing language as a playground for creativity and production, the works breathe new life into words. They confront speech and language in the context of dominant linguistic structures and violence, exploring noise, homogeneity, alienation, and belonging themes.
Within the exhibition, visitors encounter stuttering sentences, texts transformed into raw sounds, words cascading from ceiling to floor for reconstruction, choreographies translating excerpts from Ottoman Divan Literature into rhythmic movements, letters facilitating the production of sculptural objects, and sculptures embodying a plurilingual community. These disruptions to the communicative function of language provoke inquiries into diverse approaches to collective identity and formation. GLOSSOLALALA serves as a tangible manifestation and extension of a digital dialogue that unfolded between Johanna Gustafsson Fürst, Dilek Winchester, and art historian Glenn Peers on May 12, 2021. Facilitated by the Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul, in partnership with the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, this discourse was titled “Grafting the Hoped-for-We: Words as Autonomous Forces.” Within the framework of GLOSSOLALALA, two sculpture series by Johanna Gustafsson Fürst, unified under the collective title “I Bite My Nails to Reach a Softer Surface to the World,” converge, alongside Dilek Winchester’s video series “Choreographies on the Unread” and two text-based installations titled “Sharing the Same Breath” and “SSSSSAAA…”.
