Translation as a Spatial Process: The Linguistic Landscape of Caroline Bergvall’s Soundworks and Installations

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.15.14
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Keywords:

language migration, vocal composition, performative translation, multilingual space, Caroline Bergvall

Abstract

In a constantly evolving, interconnected world, both urban and rural space has become a symbolic site of linguistic and cultural gathering. Thus, translation implies a spatial dimension in which different voices converge to represent a plural, heterogeneous world. Among experimental artist Caroline Bergvall’s interlinguistic and multimodal soundworks, the installation VIA (48 Dante Variations) and the performance Ragadawn highlight the importance of the migration of languages through creative exchange. In this case study, through works that invite a real and figurative journey through language(s), sounds, silence, noise, discourses, and history, I engage with the latest trends in Translation Studies to conceive space as a semiotic landscape that communicates beyond linguistic boundaries. Translating these multimodal works also entails translating a multilingual setting in a creative way, conceiving the environment as a palimpsest (to be) translated, and highlighting the figure of the translator as a cultural agent.

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Author Biography

Sofía Lacasta Millera, University of Salamanca

Sofía Lacasta Millera graduated in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Salamanca (2017). She completed a Master’s degree in Specialised Translation and Intercultural Mediation, with international mention (METS) at the Institute of Intercultural Management and Communication in Paris and the University of Swansea (2018). She has also participated in publications specialising in the latest trends in Translation Studies (Translation Matters, 2025; Routledge, 2024; Comares, 2023). After her research stay at the University of Buenos Aires (2022), she has held a pre-doctoral contract as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Salamanca (2020–24), where she pursues her PhD Studies, and a Blue Book contract at the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission in Brussels afterwards (2024–25). She is currently working as an Interpreting lecturer at the University Complutense in Madrid. She is also a member of the TRADIC Research Group, the Experiential Translation Network and Culture Literacy Everywhere.

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Published

2025-11-28

How to Cite

Lacasta Millera, S. (2025). Translation as a Spatial Process: The Linguistic Landscape of Caroline Bergvall’s Soundworks and Installations. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, (15), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.15.14

Issue

No. 15 (2025): Language Traffic in the City: Translating Urban Space

Section

Articles

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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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