About the Glossary

What does it mean to restitute and repair through the usage of languages, long excluded within institutional spaces, but are today sometimes over-represented? They are present in the museum, the gallery, the format of the exhibition, the performances, the conferences, among others.

Today, the creation of a glossary is an exercise to complement and continue to build from the work of writers, linguists, cultural workers in understanding how the politics of language is deeply inscribed in the ways we work, live with one another and define culture(s).

Languages, here, are described beyond words. They are not only verbal communication but also all the practices in which self and collective expression continues to visibilise, archive and evidence people, cultures and communities through the material, sonic, visual, cultural and bodily practices, inside and outside of the institution.

The glossary is a digital platform that will continue to reflect and think through the coexistence of contemporary cultures with the ones that are either lost, erased, endangered as they continue to be persecuted and ought to be revived — what are the languages we want to dismantle within our diverse vocabularies, or those we want to be loudly shared and acknowledged?

The platform will allow creating a generous dialogue with people through a singular medium to share things that have meanings to them. The glossary also aims to provide a resource as an open archive to extensively share knowledge that remains little known or unknown.

The glossary is an imaginary space that reflects a thinking process.

The glossary is edited by Cindy Sissokho and designed by Denise Santos, with the support of vivóeusébio.