Contribution short abstract:

Our study takes place in Edinburgh, a city shaped by migration and translation. We focus on non-textual translation spaces, co-created through art workshops led by refugee artists, whose artwork was then displayed at a local library. The exhibition emphasised the ongoing processes of affective placemaking beyond the use of language in textual form.

Contribution long abstract:

Starting from Cronin’s premise that the migrant condition is “the condition of the translated being” (Cronin, 2006), our presentation draws on a research project on Edinburgh as a “translational city” (Simon, 2021), shaped by migration and translation. We focus on co-created translation spaces through a series of art workshops led by refugee artists. The activities, jointly organised with the Edinburgh & Lothian Regional Equality Council (ELREC), included drawing, clay work, and collage. Rather than simply translating the city from English into their own languages, participants were invited to use non-textual creative methods to break language barriers—through drawing, feeling, and imagining. The artwork was displayed in a local library. In this way, sites of “translation spaces” (Simon, 2021) were co-produced, where the dominant direction of translation was challenged and critiqued, or even temporarily reversed to reclaim urban space (Marasligil). The workshops demonstrated a range of themes in art creation, reflecting participants’ positive and nostalgic feelings towards their mother tongues, as well as their frustration and struggle with English as the new language. Imageries of home, mostly expressed through landscapes, intersected with imageries of language and cultural symbols, such as national flags or traditional patterns. Struggle and linguistic isolation were depicted via abstract imageries of imprisonment or solid and abstract clay objects. These collaborative art and craft workshops supported participants in incorporating their experiences into their ongoing processes of affective placemaking beyond the use of language in textual form.