Translation Cube

This literature festival was solely dedicated to literary translations. It tried to enable guests to experience translation as an artistic process and demonstrated what role the translator‘s individuality, biographical background and cultural contexts play in literary translations.

The festival offered six different formats in six different languages which illustrated the translating process. Translators from Cracow, Freiburg, Tübingen, Ljubljana, Prague and Berlin gathered in places which are especially tied to European cultural exchange, for example, Cracow as a hub connecting the East and West, or Freiburg as the intersection of Western and Southern Europe or Berlin and Prague as cities of transcultural interweave. The events at these locations were based on “Things Read”, “Things Performed”, “Things Exchanged”, “Things Failed”, “Things Crossed” and “Lost and Found”, all of which analytically, artistically and interactively present the art of translation.

The project offered a broad audience the opportunity to participate interactively in the creative process of translating, while professionals could become acquainted with new aspects of cultural presentation and gained inspiration for their own work.

Artistic director: Claudia Dathe
Writers: Yoko Tawada, Amalija Macek (SI), Ulrike Sandig, Dževad Karahasan (BA)
Musicians: Serhij Zhadan (UA); Performance: Nora Gomringer, Kateryna Babkina (UA)
Literary translators: Esther Kinsky, Andrzej Kopacki (PL), Frank GüntherAdditional Venues:
Villa Decius, Cracow: 16 – 19 Jan. 2014; University of Tübingen: 17 – 18 Apr. 2015; University of Ljubljana: 18 – 19 Apr. 2015; University of Prague: 4 – 7 Jun. 2015; Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin: 2 – 4 Jul. 2015