A Reading Room event in collaboration with Hugh Dichmont of Tether.
Selected texts: Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Originally titled El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. Part I published in 1605; Part II in 1615. Translated to English in 1885 by John Ormsby (1829-1895). Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food and because of so much reading.
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote (original Spanish title: “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”)
Jorge Luis Borges. Published 1939 in Spanish, 1962 in English (Translated by Anthony Bonner) Written in the form of a review or literary critical piece about (the non-existent) Pierre Menard, a 20th century French writer. It begins with a brief introduction and a listing of all of Menard’s work. Borges’s “review” describes Menard’s efforts to go beyond a mere “translation” of Don Quixote by immersing himself so thoroughly in the work as to be able to actually “re-create” it, line for line, in the original 17th century Spanish. Thus, Pierre Menard is often used to raise questions and discussion about the nature of accurate translation.
Screening sections of: Lost in La Mancha (2002), a documentary movie narrated by Jeff Bridges about Terry Gilliam’s failed first attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a movie adaptation of the novel Don Quixote. Lost in La Mancha presents Gilliam’s quest to make this movie as a parallel to Quixote’s quest to become a hero.
BOOKING ESSENTIAL: Please email jennie@hinterlandprojects.com to receive the exerts of texts in preparation for the session over the weekend.
FICTIONS Private View (All welcome) Thursday 19th March 6pm – 8pm Featuring work by Hugh Dichmont, Eugenia Ivanissevich, Glen Jamieson & Aaron Juneau, Girolamo Marri, Fay Nicolson, Helen Perkins and Marianna Simnett. For more information on the show, please visit: www.hugh-dichmont.com/fictions.html To compliment the exhibition, Nottingham-based Hinterland Projects (curated by Jennie Syson) will install a Reading Corner that acts as a contextual resource for gallery visitors. Drawn from the shelves of the Reading Room, this diverse collection of writings will provide useful links between disciplines such as the social sciences, humanities and contemporary art. Visitors will be able to take away a bespoke reading list, which has been compiled around the themes and topics in the exhibition.
