Dandan Liang/梁丹丹

Introduction

15 minutes, including calligraphy, music, poetry, video

In the process of translating poetic open and condensed texts, its ideas and images are growing, taking sideturns, are disappearing, there are misunderstandings and sometimes they are getting out of hand and find their own identity. “Dramas of growth” shows the process of translating 2 poems from Chinese into German. The extreme semantical polyphony every Chinese character carries, is met with music, video and calligraphy, all exploring aspects of meaning, influencing and translating each other in shifting relations. In this “Dramas of growth” follows a musical counterpoint logic brought upon the text and pictures.  

“Growth” is also the common topic of the 2 poems. One refers to growth in a city environment, one to biological growth. In the translation process they influence each other and ideas from the first poem take over ides from the second one. The two poems start to grow into each other. Multiple relations between the poems are created in that way, creating new perspectives on their own dramas. Like in a translation process, not one word pushes away another one, but both remain and grow into each other.

The poet Mang Cang Cang lives in Beijing, one of the biggest cities in the world and in a dry northern climate, the composer Cornelius Berkowitz in a small 400 people village in the Austrian countryside, surrounded by forests and fields, the calligrapher 9SHANG is in Bai Se (Guang Xi, South China on the border to Vietnam). In their environment all of them experience different forms of growth and the drama it creates. Their communication is based on translations.

Creative team

Text, produce: Dandan Liang

Calligraphy: 9SHANG

Compose, video editing: Cornelius Berkowitz

Concept : Translation

Motif: Growth