Translation Workshop of ACCIONALISME

Iñaki Álvarez and Ariadna Rodríguez (Nyamnyam) called me one day making a very special request: to performatively translate the text “Actionalism”, by Raymond Duncan, with the group of first-year students of the degree in Fine Arts of BAU, in Barcelona, where I was teaching the subject Processes and Projects Laboratory I. The assignment was linked to the European project PLANT (Performing Life Akademia Network).

I proposed the assignment to the students and we accepted it, without knowing what would end up happening. We started by becoming familiar with the text that we had to translate “Actionalism” (1947), by Raymond Duncan. We read it and chose certain fragments that were significant to us. Then, in groups, students proposed ways to translate those fragments of text into more or less participatory actions.

As translators, we needed to take into account the context in which the translations we made would be presented. The Nyamnyam had proposed that we expose it to the event “Si no vols pols, no vinguis a l’era”, which they would organize on the weekend of May 4 and 5 in their space, in Mieres. So our translations had to be adapted to the characteristics of that place and that event. 

Taking this into account, and bearing in mind various referents of the performative arts, we turned the different actions into instructions so that everyone who went to “Si no vols pols, no vinguis a l’era”, could carry them out. 

Finally, on Saturday, May 4, a representative group of the first course of Fine Arts went to Mieres where he was able to present the work we had been doing. Some visitors to the Nyamnyam space were encouraged to follow some of the instructions.