Editors’ Picks: Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca

Say this
Say not this
Say it again
Like this.

Say Constituency.
Write it down in a digital translator to _blank_ (insert here your mother tongue).
Does it make sense in _blank_? ¿Tiene Hace sentido para ti?
//
Say Museo Constituyente.
Escríbelo en un traductor digital en _hueco_ (inserta aquí tu lengua materna).
Does it mean anything at all in _hueco_?
//
Constituencia dice, qué,
constituencia no existe,
constituencia NO DICE ESO QUE EN INGLÉS SÍ DICE /
Dice circunscripción,
sí existe circunscripción,
circunscripción ¿DICE ESO QUE EN INGLÉS DICE DECIR?
//

Say translation as open art practice as open art matter and anti-matter
Say anti-translation as refusing, or not, to translate altogether, say not this.
Say public translation

SAY primero DICE audiencias SAY luego DICE públicos SAY luego DICE usuarios DICE gente que viene DICE turistas como si turistas no fueran gente como si la gente no fueran personas DICE vecinas DICE niñes SAY quiero participar, apuntarme, hacer algo aquí DICE me ha dicho mi nieto que aquí me puedo apuntar SAY audiences SAY costumers SAY people SAY elder adults SAY tourist SAY visitor SAY do you have free tours do you have guided tours in this museum DICE where is guernica, where is the toilet SAY no entiendo no hablo bien el español SAY in ter na cio na le DICE do you speak English -OR NOT- “one can read an English that is no longer such” tacoderaya said DICE EL MUSEO let’s call them CONSTITUENCIES participar DICE la gente: quiero participar DICE vale, quiero que participes tú y tú y tú también DICE tú NO tú SAY tú tampoco SAY art scene do not cross dijo Rogelio SAY yo sí SAY me SAY do I SAY the piece seeks to maintain the non-referential nature of the first person singular pronoun DICE hacer parte DICE the constituent museum, then, does not have a department of education Alberto Altés said once DICE it is entirely constitued as a collective learning space: rather than exhibit, it performs DICE vale ok pero yo dónde me apunto DICE vale ok pero yo cómo me entero SAY accesible SAY quiero llegar SAY me lo puedes traducir por favor SAY quiero cruzar la puerta DICE el security check DICE quiero usar DICE un usuario SAY este arte que no sé si entiendo SAY esto para qué sirve SAY this is public, this is ours DICE the uses of art DICE what’s the use dice Sara Ahmed SAY accesibility program DICE join the program DICE par ti ci pa DICE since we are “sisters in the use of constituency” as you once put it, I would like us to resume the initial idea that “constituencies, the people, are the political basis of any democratic institution” Adela Železnik said DICE quién quiere pasar DICE qué DICE qué dice SAY what do you say SAY what does the museum is saying DICE what DICE qué cómo DICE puedes repetir please SAY can you repeat por favor DICE aquí SAY aquí no

Say here not here, there not here translation.
Say pleasure.
Say break and rebuild everything via translation.

[This text include excerpts from Say Translation Is Art by Sawako Nakayasu (2020) and samples from three publications available on L’internationale Online. Its composition is also inspired by the project [oficina inestable de traducción libre], accompanied by translator and poet Elia Maqueda, that proposed a space for gathering around community free amateur translation of materials featured in the exhibition Llámalo de otra manera Something Else Press, Inc. (1963-1974) in Museo Reina Sofía, September 2023 - January 2024]

Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca is Head of Education at Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and has been a member of the editorial board for L’Internationale Online since 2023.

John Byrne, Elinor Morgan, November Paynter, Aida Sánchez de Serdio, and Adela Železnik (eds.), The Constituent Museum. Constellations of Knowledge, Politics and Mediation, 2018

Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, Sofía Olascoaga, and Adela Železnik (eds.), From/To. Letters From/To the Constituent Museum, 2022

tacoderaya, ‘1 ola majestic en mi balconee | 1 majestik wave en mi balco-knee’, 2021