Juan Cruz

Juan Cruz is translating Don Quijote (again)
16 September to 6 November 2005

From noon to 6pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Juan Cruz will be reading, and simultaneously translating aloud, Cervantes' Don Quijote. It is estimated that the process will take eight weeks and generate approximately 150 hours of recorded audio material.

The performance will take place in a room behind the gallery space. It will be viewed through a small internal window, and heard via speakers transmitting a live audio feed into the gallery. In this sense the work is as much a formal gallery installation as it is the staging of a live event.

Cruz performed an earlier version of this work in 1996 in a room at the Instituto Cervantes in London. On that occasion he translated only about a third of the novel and no recording was made. The goal this time is to finish the job – starting from the beginning again.

For further information and press images contact the gallery on 020 7739 8080 or email mail@peeruk.org

Juan Cruz is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid. With thanks to Arts Council England, London, for supporting this project.

Installation images from Juan Cruz is translating Don Quijote (again)

Hear a 5 min extract of Chapter 6: Quixote.mp3 (4.58 MB)

Press

Independent on Sunday review

Artforum review