Language and power; 10.000 words for change. A mediation on language
New words and new worlds are closely related. In English, worlding and wording are not only linguistically very close to each other, but they also show that language can be used to read what is changing in the world and vice versa. Battles are fought over language, it is associated with identity, home and the limits of what can be known are usually the limits of what can be said. Language itself lives like the creatures that speak it. It is in constant motion, sorting out old terms and taking in new ones. What enters the circulation of our daily speech changes our view of the world and our thinking, because we cannot think in any other way than in words. Those who censor words erase realities, those who establish them reshape them. It is an eternal game. Triggered by the Corona pandemic, Thomas Oberender has collected a list of more than 10,000 words in recent years – subjectively filtered out terms that mark change on the most diverse levels. Based on this word log of the new, Oberender reflects on language, language change and, in doing so, thinks linguistic and political events together.
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Thomas Oberender is a German author and curator. He founded the multi-year formats “Immersion” and “The New Infinity” at the Berliner Festspiele. In curatorial teams he designed time-based exhibitions such as “Limits of Knowing”, “Welt ohne Aussen”, “Down to Earth” at the Gropius Bau Berlin and “The Sun Machine Is Coming Down” 2021 at the ICC Berlin. Philippe Parreno’s “Remembrance of a Future Exhibition” was chosen as “Exhibition of the Year” in 2018, the project “Down to Earth” received the award for one of the 10 most important art projects worldwide from the Segal Center in New York 2021. Publications: “The Living Exhibition” (Spector books, 2022), “Changes” and “Hybrid Theatre” (Theater der Zeit, 2022).
www.thomas-oberender.de
Photo portrait: Joerg Carstensen, dpa