Language is the only homeland

Language is the only homeland is an exhibition about the relationship between language and cultural identity. The title is a quotation from the Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004), which means that language, perhaps even more so than geographical location, has the ability to make someone feel at home somewhere. What does the language that someone speaks say about someone’s identity? Does the language a person speaks determine the way that person interprets the world around them? Language is the only homeland examines the social, cultural and political implications of language – language that someone chooses to speak, is forced to speak or is unable to speak.

The artists look at contemporary traces of colonial domination and globalization and migration in relation to the (loss or retention of) language and cultural identity.