Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

We are happy to present you the programme of the Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021.

All festival events are accessible free of charge. Registration is required.

The festival events take place in conformity with the current corona safety rules. The health and safety of our guests, authors and co-workers are extremely important to us. Therefore, we constantly adapt our concept of prevention to the current regulation of the Austrian Federal Government and the city of Vienna.   

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Opening Evening of the Festival 
Digital Premiere
September 23, 18:00 CET

The Festival Bridging the Tongues opens through a discursive evening during which the organizers pursue a question whose poignancy is only now discovered in Europe: what happens with a society when a new language emerges? And how does this impact literature, when this emergence takes place before our eyes and ears? At the border between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Columbia the Portunhol language already has been developing for decades. It composes itself as a mixed language between Portuguese and Spanish.

Writers, musicians, film makers already use the language as a medium by which to convey their messages – together with the people. The activist, writer and adult educator Rubia Salgado together with the literary critic Myriam Ávila will accompany us throughout the evening, which will bring us from theoretical considerations to the main exponent of the wild Portuñol, Douglas Diegues (translation into German by Odile Kennel). Subsequently there will be a discussion with the writer. 

More information about Douglas Diegues work here

Clique aqui para Português: http://www.kollektiv-sprachwechsel.org/festival-portuges/

Moderation: Ovid Pop.

The digital premiere will be streamed on our website.
Please register for free. You’ll get the link to the Opening Evening in your inbox on the day of the event.

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Tandem Readings 
Digital Premiere
September 24 and 25

10 multilingual authors – living in Vienna and abroad – will read from their texts as part of the festival in the Brunnenpassage Vienna. Languages and genres will combine and complement each other. The concept of the tandem reading is that the two multilingual authors will present their own texts together and then reflect on literary multilingualism. Depending on the language the readings will be provided with translations in German.  

By juxtaposing languages and voices the organizers hope to emphasize both the common traits and the peculiarities of the multilingual writing. Also the innovations brought forth by individual authors will find a better expression this way, since nearness facilitates comparison of motives and styles, of influences and discrepancies and makes possible that we understand each other better.  

We invite you to take part online in the different Tandem Readings:  

September 24: international authors
17:00 – 18:30 María Cecilia Barbetta & Xoşewîst (German)
Moderation: Maiada Hadaia & Zoltan Lesi

19:00 – 20:30 Canan Marasligil & Sulaiman Addonia (English) 
Moderation: Maiada Hadaia & Laura M. Pana

September 25: Vienna based authors
15:00-16:30 Alexandra Pâzgu & Soheil Zamani (German)
Moderation: Maiada Hadaia & Zoltan Lesi
 
17:00-18:30 Loulou Omer & Mandakini Pachauri  (English)
Moderation: Maiada Hadaia & Laura M. Pana

19:00-20:30 Barbi Markovic & Seda Tunç (German)
Moderation: Maiada Hadaia & Zoltan Lesi

The digital premiere will be streamed on our website.
Please register for free. You’ll get the link to the Tandem Reading(s) in your inbox on the day of the event.

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Literary walks
September 18, 19, 26
When: 15:00-16:30 
Where: Vienna City

The literary walks invite the audience to discover the city of Vienna from a freshly new multilingual perspective. During the beautiful September days the participants will be lead by the literary city guides to different places in Vienna which have a certain relevance for the young and old multilingual history of the city.

This enjoyable format offers the possibility to savour literature and literary topics in the open air and at the same time learn about the plurilingual history of Vienna, a city that has been forging and using many kinds of languages for a very long time.

*The number of participants to this event is limited.*

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Live Special Preview
Join us: September 8, 9, 10
Where: Brunnenpassage
Yppenplatz, Brunnengasse 71, 1160, Vienna

We invite you to join us for a series of exciting readings and discussions on literary multilingualism featuring international and local authors in the early days of September. Our host is Brunnenpassage located in the Yppenplatz in the 16th district in Vienna, a hub of multilingual exchange. 

Check the 3-day programme and register for free at anmeldung@brunnenpassage.at until the evening before the event.

The literary exchanges will be premiered online on our website between September 23-25. Have a look at the entire programme and register for free.

We are looking forward to having you with us!

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Workshop Sprache handelt
Join us on: August 21, 22, 28, 29
16 to 25 years old
Where: Volkskundemuseum Vienna

The workshop Sprache handelt experiments with the bodily and performative expressiveness of multilingual persons. Invited to take part are especially young persons between 16 and 25 years of age from different speech communities in Vienna. Our concept draws on the acknowledgment that multilingualism moves body and thoughts differently. Monolingual cultures offer little space for the unlimited expression of multilingualism, not least in its bodily manifestation. The workshop Sprache handelt comes to meet this need.

The workshop draws on the objects of the Klimesch Collection in Volkundemuseum. These objects should inspire the participants to find their own forms of expression by means of employing their own body and mind. The results of the workshops will be presented as part of the Bridging the Tongues Festival digital premiere.  

The workshop will be conducted by Negin Rezaie, visual and performing artist, curator, innovator and activist.

*The number of participants to this event is limited.*

Bridging the Tongues Festival 2021

Workshop Erzähllust – Literatur so wie sie in keinem Buch steht
Join us on: August 21, 22, 28, 29
Where: Volkskundemuseum Vienna

The workshop Erzähllust – Literatur so wie sie in keinem Buch steht focuses on the spoken multilingual word and brings to light story telling traditions from various speech milieus and cultures. Invited to take parte are members of different speech communities in Vienna. Our concept gladly distances itself from the significance of the written word, which is so central to the European literary tradition and embraces oral story telling formats from all over the world. 

The workshop draws on the objects of the Klimesch Collection in Volkundemuseum. These objects should inspire the participants to manifold stories, memories and/or phantasies and forge them into words. The results of the workshops will be presented as part of the Bridging the Tongues Festival digital premiere.  

The workshop will be conducted by Weina Zhao film maker, author, translator and cultural worker.  

*The number of participants to this event is limited.*

Bridging The Tongues Festival 2021

Bridging The Tongues Festival 2021

Radio Show on Radio Orange  
26.09 – 07.11.2021 

An adapted radio version of the literary exchanges between the international and local authors are available on Radio Orange.