Reflect on a moment where you were left speechless. When the language that was is no longer there. When words refuse to work as they should. How attempts to translate outwards become clumsy and inadequate. Over the course of the workshop, facilitated by artist Noelle BuAbbud, we will read short stories, essays, and poems that deal with themes of speechlessness, the untranslatable and language & its lack. Each reading will be followed by material exercises, to see how these materials might take on the role of interlocutor. Together we will improvise, assemble and reshape how these gestures may form a new collective impulse. Attempts will be documented and a small booklet will be produced.
This workshop is offered in English, though participants are very welcome to bring their own language.
Workshop for up to 16 participants.
Please register via office@gak-bremen.de until November 12, 2026.
This workshop is offered in English, though participants are very welcome to bring their own language.
Workshop for up to 16 participants. Please register via office@gak-bremen.de until November 12, 2026.
The workshop takes place in the context of our exhibition if words are to be sounded.
You are warmly invited to also attend the reading by Joana Atemengue Owona & Dejvi Haxhi on Oct 29, 2026 and the performance by Sophie Seita on Nov 12, 2026 that touch upon the topics of the workshop with their own perspectives.
Funding
As part of the PERSPEKTIVE fund for contemporary art & architecture, an initiative of the Bureau des arts visuels of the Institut français d’Allemagne. Supported by the French Ministry of Culture, the Institut français Paris and the Goethe Institut.
Funding GAK Bremen: Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung, Beate + Hartmut Schaefers Stiftung, Partnerschaften für Demokratie in Bremen, gefördert vom Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend im Rahmen des Bundesprogramms Demokratie leben, Sparkasse Bremen, Senator für Kultur der Freien und Hansestadt Bremen