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Voice: Talal Al-Haddad, Marta Paolesse and Derek Arthur

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In this project I asked 3 friends from 3 different countries, to made a voice message of them reading the poem “My tongue is divided into two” by Quique Aviles, a poet and performer whose work addresses social issues from El Salvador.

Viewers come here to scan a QR code, listen to the voice message from their phone, and draw or write down what do they think this person looks like, or what do they feel about this person. I also made a questionnaire for people who can only do it remotely, by this way, they can’t see other people’s drawings and text.

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• Why do they make this assumption?
• Why do they have this image when they heard someone’s voice?
• Why do people have a similar idea just based on the voice?
• How do viewers feel like in this whole process?
• What is the other possibility of this project? (combine with technology etc)

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After collecting all these drawings and text assumptions, I morphed all the drawings together, to created a new identity. From these 3 faces, I started to make new faces for each of the voice.

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My tongue is divided into two

BY QUIQUE AVILÉS

Source: POETRY FOUNDATION

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My tongue is divided into two

by virtue, coincidence or heaven

words jumping out of my mouth

stepping on each other

enjoying being a voice for the message

expecting conclusions

My tongue is divided into two

into heavy accent bits of confusion

into miracles and accidents

saying things that hurt the heart

drowning in a language that lives, jumps, translates

My tongue is divided by nature

by our crazy desire to triumph and conquer

This tongue is cut up into equal pieces

one wants to curse and sing out loud

the other one simply wants to ask for water

My tongue is divided into two

one side likes to party

the other one takes refuge in praying

tongue

english of the funny sounds

tongue

funny sounds in english

tongue

sounds funny in english

tongue

in funny english sounds

My tongue sometimes acts like two

and it goes crazy

not knowing which side should be speaking

which side translating

My tongue is divided into two

a border patrol runs through the middle

frisking words

asking for proper identification

checking for pronunciation

My tongue is divided into two

My tongue is divided into two

I like my tongue

it says what feels right

I like my tongue

it says what feels right

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Quique Avilés, “My tongue is divided into two” from The Immigrant Museum. Copyright © 2004 by Quique Avilés. Reprinted by permission of Raices de Papel.

Source: The Immigrant Museum (Rain Coast Books, 2004)

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