A little bit more about :

Swetlana Geier is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. Her new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels, known as the “five elephants”, are her life’s work and literary mile-stones.

“The concept of transportation is not an adequate metaphor for translation. It is not transportation, since the luggage never arrives. I’ve always been interested in the losses. By what always has to be left outside that which has been newly created, the translation.”

Her work is characterised by a great and sensual feeling for language and uncompromising respect for the writers she translates. The standard she sets for her translations is that their encapsulated spirit must correspond to the essence of the author. At the same time, she is aware that every translation is, in the end, an incomplete work, bound to the era of its creation. She says:

“Translations are mortal. Every epoch deserves its own translations.”

Swetlana Geier’s life was overshadowed by Europe’s varied history and her fate is unusual: Born in the Ukraine in 1923, she saw, at the age of fifteen, how her father was arrested during Stalin’s purges and released after eighteen months of terrible mistreatment, only to die soon thereafter. At eighteen she lost her best friend, when SS commandos executed 30,000 Jews in Kiev.

She worked as an interpreter during the occupation of the Ukraine. In 1943 she and her mother were sent to a labour camp for Eastern European prisoners in Dortmund.

She experienced the horrors of two dictatorships, but repeatedly came into contact with people who had the moral courage to assist her and make her survival possible.

“There was a man who stood up for me. He was employed at the ministry for the occupied Eastern territories. And it wasn’t that he was looking for some sweet young thing to drag into bed. During that time I met some German people who, entirely selflessly, achieved the impossible for me.”

She remained in Germany after the war, studied, had a family and began translating Russian literature into German. Today she has been lecturing at various universities for forty years. She is the grandmother and great-grandmother to many children and the head of an extensive family.

“My teacher always said: ‘Nose up in the air when you translate.’ That is to say, one doesn’t translate from left to right, following the text, but only after one has made the sentence one’s own. It first has to be internalised, taken to heart. I read a book so often that my eyes ’gouge holes’ in pages. I basically know it by heart. Then the day comes when I suddenly hear the melody of the text.”

The works of Dostoyevsky have a special significance in Swetlana Geier’s life. In a process which lasted for years, she imbibed these texts, studied Dostoyevsky’s manuscripts and travelled to the locations where the novels’ events took place, so as to understand their geography and to see them through the eyes of the novelist.

“One has to read Dostoyevsky like a treasure-seeker: Jewels are buried in the most inconspicuous places and are often only to be discovered at a second or third reading. He is inexhaustible.”

Today Swetlana Geier is probably more familiar with the life and work of this writer than almost anyone else. And the central themes, around which his novels are pivoted, fascinate her more than ever: The questions as to human freedom and self-knowledge; and whether the end can ever justify the means.

At the age of eighty-five Swetlana Geier makes her first trip since the war back to the scenes of her childhood in the Ukraine. The director Vadim Jendreyko accompanies her on this journey. The film traces its protagonist’s recollections as fragments, archive footage reflects the events in world history she witnessed. It accompanies her back to the sealed scenes of her childhood and follows her at home whilst she goes about her daily and literary business.

The film interweaves the story of Swetlana Geier’s life with her literary work and traces the secret of this inexhaustible mediator of language. It tells of great suffering, silent helpers and unhoped-for chances - and a love of language that outshines all else.

work is characterised by a great and sensual feeling for language and uncompromising respect for the writers she translates. The standard she sets for her translations is that their encapsulated spirit must correspond to the essence of the author. At the same time, she is aware that every translation is, in the end, an incomplete work, bound to the era of its creation. She says:

“Translations are mortal. Every epoch deserves its own translations.”

Swetlana Geier’s life was overshadowed by Europe’s varied history and her fate is unusual: Born in the Ukraine in 1923, she saw, at the age of fifteen, how her father was arrested during Stalin’s purges and released after eighteen months of terrible mistreatment, only to die soon thereafter. At eighteen she lost her best friend, when SS commandos executed 30,000 Jews in Kiev.

A little bit more about Sable Island :

“Hello, I’m Trixie Boutillier. I grew up on Sable. My father was superintendent of the lifesaving station from 1885 to 1912. I was only 5 years old when we came. I’d like to tell you what it was like to live there.
People thought it was terrible to live on Sable, that we were savages But Sable was special to all of us. Once you left the island, your greatest desire was to go back again.
Lifesaving is why we were there, of course. 33 ships wrecked while father was superintendent. Some people drowned but we saved most of them. They stayed next door in the Sailor’s Home until the steamer came and took them to Halifax.”

A little bit more about :

ON THE ROAD WITH ROMAN SIGNER by Peter Liechti
Art critics have often characterised Roman Signer as a «maximalist of modesty». He works with the very simplest of props, that don’t claim to have any artistic (but certainly aesthetic) worth, and are used in a purely functional manner. In his performances we i can experience how Roman Signer, or rather his constructions and landscapes, are exposed to elemental natural and physical forces. He specifically puts them to use and includes them in the creative process thus giving his ’sculpture’ shape. After a long preparatory period full of suspense the real event is like a stroke of lightning great expectation before and then an even greater longing afterwards for ‘it’ to happen again…
Roman Signer has never conformed to any kind of trend, he has never simply followed current ideas. His personal way of life and his work are conspicuously unfashionable, albeit absolutely modern.
His own timelessness is an expression of his independence and gives a clearer more undistorted view of the prevailing signs of the times.
In the seemingly simple arrangements of his ‘performances’ Roman Signer serves only as the trigger nature and time do the rest… Which also means: Roman Signer’s work is mainly creating shows and very often films too. For the past 15 years he has documented his performances himself in short super 8 films. Impressively simple short films full of fun and poetry, often no longer than 30 seconds. Using our own cinematic resources we aimed to take the essence of those short films and transfer them into a geographical/cultural context, that extends beyond the limits of the art sphere. Beside this his performances are particularly engaging visual events that have a certain parablelike approach to human destiny and certain natural phenomena. His performances are never just a show to be seen but also make us see in a deeper sense. What primarily seems to be a demonstration of energy takes on a highly meditative character when further contemplated: actually a continual reminder of transience.
As a film maker I saw my task in the preservation of work that so resolutely resists commercial evaluation (also on the art market… ) or at least in capturing it photographically, so that in some way it would endure.
The sensuality and simple clarity on the one hand as well as this unimpeachable, almost religious being on the other were the challenge of filming Roman Signer’s work On the cinematic journey we made together Roman Signer in a way dictated the route; the film improvises as we proceed on our way.

«I have some ideas, but to do the kind of job I do is something you cannot plan documenting the vulcanic eruptions, you don’t have a readymade script. The nature itself makes its script and you try to follow it. So you are continously fighting for the material and you don’t know, how the story is going to end.» Villi Knudsen, documentary film maker, Reykjavik

«It’s like a big house with a mysterious room, that I would like to call the explosion chamber.»
«You can sometimes get a bit nearer, sometimes pass close by the center, but when you are at the center, you bum in the deadly chamber.» Roman Signer

«I show as much of the surroundings as is needed, for people to imagine the center.»
«I don’t want to prove or verify anything, I want to touch something.» Peter Liechti

French artist Xavier Veilhan has been invited to exhibit at the estate of Versailles, following on from American artist Jeff Koons. Unlike his predecessor, Xavier Veilhan’s selection is composed entirely of works designed for the exhibition.