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"The barriers to entry into a new culture often can be boiled down to two things, being in the vicinity of said culture and knowing the language in which they speak, read and write. Every language has its nuances and intrigues that seldom make the process easy, but we all begin a new language with the most basic of associations, the visual relations. Silvana Soriano takes the medium of visual art and transcends language in her representations of idioms, metaphors, sayings and stories by presenting them as literal as can be, playing with the mixtures of cultures and narratives given through words. Ipsis Literis, as Soriano has given name to the series, translates to “word for word,” as a play on the pieces’ quite literal portrayal of their meaning."-Curator Gabriel TorresSoriano began to explore different ways of bringing together communities from different cultural backgrounds. This search, with the help of her daughter, led her to the idea of creating a poem book. In 2021, Soriano collaborated with various creatives to produce the book with the same title as the series, Ipsis Literis,. In this book, Soriano invited creatives to write poems based on her collages or popular idioms. Vice versa, Soriano created several collages based on poems submitted. Below, we reexplore two of the poems featured in the book as an example of how art and language can collectively dismantle the barriers between cultures.
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"Because it is a set of words that are not possible to be understood in their literal sense, it is often very difficult or even impossible to translate idiomatic expressions into other languages. But at the same time, they talk a lot about the peculiarity of a culture and its people. The idea of making drawings 'literally' is a playful way of presenting these expressions and promoting reflection on different cultures."
- Silvana Soriano
Ipsis Litteris: An exploration of language through collage
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