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^{miranda j friedman}

no translation available, documentary and performance excerpts with sound, 1:02, 2018.

no translation available

During an artist residency at I:O, Helikon Art Center in Izmit, Turkey, friedman created the research collaboration, no translation available, which explores miscommunication and misinterpretation in relationships of care. In discussing all that goes untranslated in interpersonal communication, artist and translator, Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, discusses globalization as the largest use of translation. As a translator, “it’s like you are kind of two heads,” they explain in the documentary.

Research around miscommunication, ambiguous nonverbals and assumption brought the collaboration to conduct a close study of the untranslatable Portuguese word, “saudade.” The term’s defiance against interpretation is a reminder of the unknown in group dynamics. friedman created the book, Saudade, to summarize the group’s research, which also included the performance and documentary friedman directed (excerpted in the video above).

Vocalist and artist Mercedes Aqui selected with poet, artist and translator Cyriaco Lopes, the song, Estranha Forma de Vida, which includes the word “saudade.” Found footage of the song’s original delivery by Amália Rodrigues is included in the video. During a group exhibition opening at Kedi Gallery in Izmit, Aqui sang it live and Lopes read the verses (both in the video). Alp Aslan conducted a live English-to-Turkish translation during the performance.

Saudade, book, 8.5 in W x 5.5 in H, 2018.

“Saudade” is one of at least six untranslatable Portuguese terms. The word roughly means a type of nostalgia for something that has never happened. Additionally, Lopes, a translator of Portuguese poetry and literature, explains that the word is “just like joy, but the opposite.”

One text, two voices, many assumptions.

Although Lopes read the same text that Aqui sang, viewers responded that they believed that two different texts were being delivered. friedman led a participatory discussion after the performance that revealed this assumption.