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Do you know what ‘semsiye’ means? Do you use the word ‘kirbaç’ for a whip?

Discover the meaning and friendship of words in Turkish and Palestinian Arabic as spoken by Ulufer Çelik and Alaa Abu Asad. Join the artists for an evening with performance, storytelling, translation and the depiction of words that can’t be translated.

For around three years, the artists have been asking each other about identical words used in both of their languages: Turkish and (vernacular) Palestinian Arabic. It is a process that can last for as long as their friendship endures. They spend time together uttering words held in common and draw them, discovering whether they carry the same meaning, are slightly different, or are false friends. In 2020, the artists published  I love it when translation can be found to agree with our weird desires.

Ulufer Çelik (1992, Antalya, Turkey) is an artist living and working between Antalya and Rotterdam. Her artistic practice explores the potentialities of narrative and myth-making. More about Ulufer Çelik

Alaa Abu Asad (1989, Palestine) is an Artist, researcher and photographer. He develops alternative trajectories in which (re)presentation, translation, looking, reading and understanding can intersect. More about Alaa Abu Asad

Images 1 & 2: I love it when translation can be found to agree with our weird desires (2020) by Ulufer Çelik and Alaa Abu Asad. Photo by Peter Chung. Courtesy the artists
Image 3: Portrait Ulufer Çelik and Alaa Abu Asad. Photo by Audrey Large. Courtesy the artists.