Since Kultivera first gathered writers from around the world together for their first international literary residency in 2014 it has had a natural connection with translation. The development of the Tranås at the Fringe festival has strengthened the connection with multi-disciplinary arts forms including film and performing arts.
With the creation of litteraturcentrum Kvu, Kultivera partnered with publishers and many multidisciplinary artists and a deeper interest in interdisciplinary work emerged. Starting with literary translations of poetry into various languages, members of the team began to push the barriers of what literary translation or artistic interpretation could produce. The artistic directors of the festival Dominic Williams (literature) and Laura Bianco (Film) have worked with ekphrastic responses but also with more strict artistic exercises in honest translations of one piece of artwork from one medium to another translating from the language of sound to the language of light or vice versa considering films and poems.
During the process of various literary translations between Swedish, English, and Spanish many of the poets involved including Aleisa Ribalta, Antonio Slavador, Christer Boberg and Dominic Wiliams practice as performance poets or spoken word artists as well as written poetry. When combining poetry and performance there are clearly many differences in delivery that can significantly change the tone and character of a work but also the meaning and messages.
The ripples project is a compilation of an archive of these artistic and performative expressions and interpretations of a set canon of poetic work. Examples of how poems may be interpreted by a performer and then therefore presented in different performances can be found below. Three different presentations of the poem madman on the train as a short video; as a live performance with music; both by the original author and as a dramatic piece by Antonio Salvador interpreting Aleisa Ribalta’s work and three presentations of Vårt Arkivet by the author Christer Boberg and again by Antonio Salvador.
Here are three examples of the poem Mad Man on the Train written by Dominic Williams translated by Alesia Ribalta and performed by the author and the Puerto Rican poet Antonio Salvador.
Dominic Williams poetry video of Mad Man on the Train:
Dominc Williams performing Mad Man on the Train with the band 16 Blåsare Utan Järna as part of Tranås at the Fringe 2021 punk day:
Antonio Salvador’s interpretation and performance of Mad Man on the Train by Dominic Williams:
Here we have three examples of the poem Vårt Arkivet (Swedish) written by Christer Boberg translated by Alesia Ribalta and performed by the author and the Puerto Rican poet Antonio Salvador.
Christer Boberg poetry video recording of Vårt Arkivet:
Christer Boberg performing Vårt Arkivet with the Magnus Axelsson as part of the “Christer och Magnus spider oro” at Tranås at the fringe 2020.
Antonio Salvador’s interpretation and performance of Vårt Arkivet by Christer:
From these one can get a feel of the change of dynamics and expression possible from one body of poetry in its original language and through translation.
Here is the full playlist of ripples poems
