Studio Créole Premieres at Manchester International Festival, Exploring Translation and World Literature

Studio Créole, a group exhibition curated by Adam Thirlwell and Hans Ulrich Obrist, premieres at the Manchester International Festival from July 4 to 21, 2019. The project stages literature through performance, architecture, and visual arts, focusing on translation as a creolizing agent. A stage design by Rem Koolhaas and Federico Martelli deconstructs interpreter booths into mobile, free-floating structures. The exhibition features seven writers working in different languages, with live translations performed by interpreters and then reinterpreted by actor Lisa Dwan. Bone conduction headphones allow audiences to hear both the original language and English translation simultaneously. The project draws inspiration from philosopher Édouard Glissant's concepts of mondialité and créolisation, resisting cultural homogenization and nationalism. Rules include no writers working in the host language of each iteration, and stories must use anonymous first person and include conversations with strangers. The exhibition is designed to tour internationally with adaptations to local contexts. Thirlwell and Obrist discussed the project's origins, citing influences from Goethe's world literature ideal, modernist figures like James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and Oulipian techniques. The conversation took place at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London in May 2019 as part of the United Artists for Europe programme.