BABEL FABLE AND SOUND IN THE ROUND

RHYS FULLERTON REVIEWS: SLAVS AND TATARS' LEKTOR

Lektor is a solo-exhibition and new commission in Collective’s City Dome by art collective Slavs and Tatars.  

Slavs and Tatars have taken an influential 11th-century Turkic epic, Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Royal Glory), and translated it into five languages. The audio installation is spoken in Uighur (NW China), Turkish, German, Polish, Arabic and Scottish Gaelic.  

It is a dizzying experience.  

Have you ever sat in a café whilst on holiday in a foreign country and wondered what the locals are talking about?

For me this is what Lektor feels like. It's as if you are being allowed in on the conversation but there is no way of understanding what everyone is talking about.

In the middle of Collective’s City Dome are a number of rugs, perfectly layered to fill the space and create an octagon. Positioned on the outside of these rugs are six speakers and one plinth.  When you stand in the middle of the octagon, the translated texts play simultaneously and it feels as if you’re in the middle of an intelligent discussion where all participants talk over each other.  

Walking around the outside of this exhibition doesn’t really do anything. To experience it you have to be in the centre as if the voices are talking directly to you. You can almost imagine the people there, speaking confidently and clearly.  

I found this installation alienating. It’s as if I wasn’t allowed to be in on the meaning. For me, this work was lost in translation but that may have been its purpose. It draws you in with its comfortable setting but leaves you feeling dizzy and confused.

Also on display is 'Hung and Tart (acacia)', a hand blown glass sculpture (see above). From certain angles, this exquisite piece looks remarkably like a tongue. With all the words and languages being spoken, it’s hard not to think of how powerful a tool the tongue is. Without the tongue there would be no spoken language and there would be no Lektor.

Slavs and Tatars, Lektor is on until 12 July 2015 at Collective’s City Dome (City Observatory, Calton Hill). Admission free.

[Slavs and Tatars, Lektor (installation view), courtesy of the artist and Collective, Edinburgh. Photo: Tom Nolan.]