Cover not available

Article In: Language, Culture and Society: Online-First Articles

The semiosis of style

Translating for the multimodal art exhibition space

ORCiD logo with link | 
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Coinciding with the momentous FIFA World Cup 2022, over 200 signature Haute Couture and pret-à-porter creations were displayed at the M7 design and innovation hub in Doha to pay homage to Valentino Garavani and celebrate the heritage of the Italian luxury fashion house Valentino, in its largest exhibition to date. Informed by a text linguistics perspective and a functional approach to translation, this case study takes a close look the translation of wall texts into Arabic at the exhibition Forever Valentino (October 2022–March 2023). The analysis addresses cross-cultural communication challenges, focusing specifically on the rhetorically motivated arrangement of linguistic elements in exhibition texts, and their semiotic interaction within the multimodal art gallery space. The paper highlights the importance of considering the semiosis of the exhibition space in the translation of wall texts, where language and art meet, and the content of the message becomes inseparable from its form.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology and data
  • 3.Semiosis of the multimodal exhibition space
    • 3.1The semiotic and linguistic landscape
      • 3.1.1Display style
      • 3.1.2Spatial arrangement
      • 3.1.3The verbal-to-visual ratio
    • 3.2The exhibition texts
      • 3.2.1Word choice
      • 3.2.2Text organization
  • 4.The translation of exhibition texts at forever valentino
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Author queries
  • References
References (34)
References
About Qatar Creates. Qatar Creates. [URL]
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. L. (1990). Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual review of Anthropology, 59–88. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borrelli-Persson, Laird. (2022, September). “Pierpaolo Piccioli on Forever Valentino, the theatrical and sweeping exhibition exploring the House’s codes and values that opens in Doha this October”. Vogue. [URL]
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hatim, B. (2004). The translation of style: linguistic markedness and textual evaluativeness. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(3). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kjeldsen, A. K., & Jensen, M. N. (2015). When words of wisdom are not wise. A study of accessibility in museum exhibition texts. Nordisk Museologi, (1), 91–91.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mendes, Silvano & Rees-Roberts, Nick. (2015). New French Luxury: Art, Fashion and the Re-Invention of a National Brand, Luxury, 2(2), pp. 53–69, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Molodychenko, E. N., & Spitzmüller, J. (2021). Metapragmatics and genre: Connecting the strands. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 25(1), 89–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakassis, C. V. (2012). Brand, citationality, performativity. American Anthropologist, 114(4), 624–638. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neather, R. (2008). Translating tea: On the semiotics of interlingual practice in the Hong Kong Museum of Teaware. Meta: Translators’ Journal, 53 (1), 218–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). Translation, memory, and the museum visitor. In S. Deane-Cox & A. Spiessens (Eds.), The Handbook of translation and memory (pp. 155–169). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, Media, Language (pp. 128–138). London, UK: Hutchinson University Library.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. (2013). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, J. (2012). Text linguistics and translation. Handbook of translation studies, 31, 178–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, J. T., & Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation, in P. V. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, politics, and identities (pp. 402–434). Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. Y. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of language and social psychology, 16(1), 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nord, C. (2018). Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olohan, M., & Baker, M. (2000). Reporting that in translated English: Evidence for subconscious processes of explicitation?. Across Languages and Cultures, 1(2), 141–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pym, A. (2015). Translating as risk management. Journal of Pragmatics, 851, 67–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qatar Museums. (2022–2023). Forever Valentino [Exhibition wall texts]. Doha, Qatar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ravelli, L. (2006). Museum Texts: Communication Frameworks. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reiss, K. (1981). Type, kind and individuality of text: Decision making in translation. Poetics Today, 2(4), 121–131. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandell, R. (2005). Constructing and communicating equality: The social agency of museum space. In S. MacLeod (Ed.), Reshaping museum space: Architecture, design, exhibitions (pp. 185–200). Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., and Scollon, S. W. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Séguinot, C. (1988). Pragmatics and the explicitation hypothesis. TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction, 1(2), 106–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, M., & Urban, G. (Eds.). (1996). Natural histories of discourse. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smithsonian Institution. (2021). Guide to interpretive writing for exhibitions. Smithsonian Exhibits. [URL]
Spitzmüller, J. (2015). Graphic variation and graphic ideologies: A metapragmatic approach. Social semiotics, 25(2), 126–141. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sturge, K. (2007). Representing others. Translation, ethnography and the museum. St. Jerome. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis. Cambridge university press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Theodoropoulou, E. and Alós, J. (2018). ‘Expect amazing! Branding Qatar as a sports tourism destination’, Visual Communication, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valentino. (2022, October 28). Valentino: A perspective. Valentino. [URL]
Watermeyer, R. (2012). A conceptualisation of the post-museum as pedagogical space. Journal of Science Communication, 11(1), A02. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue