Kodac Ko, Niklaus Anton Martha Emil (N.A.M.E.)

Niklaus Anton Martha Emil (N.A.M.E.), Single video version, 15 min 58, 2017
Beginning with the personal experience of learning a new language, the artistic project questions the concept of identity and tracks down cultural shifts. These manifest themselves on the meaning level of the spoken word.
Contained in twenty portraits of people who found a new home in Germany within a period of the last years, they introduce themselves to the audience. Reciting the spelling alphabet, they begin by speaking their names in German which gives an insight into the individual purport in their mother tongue. Their name creates and establishes identity. It is bound to acceptance, cultural tradition, personal experiences and family heritage. Language seems to encourage social opening, but at the same time it has its limits. The transfer gives rise to vacancies, shortenings and differences which float the suggestion of the plurality of identity.
Text : Klara Hülskamp