Horizontally Speaking is a three channel video and deconstructed paper text installation (paper sculpture not shown here). This work comments on the assumed hegemony of languages while also acknowledging the experience of a group of individual artists coming together to form a temporary household in Berlin. Here in our residency home, we originate from eight different countries and speak five languages and five dialects. We are living in a multicultural neighborhood in a German city— Berlin—and we all speak English together. For some of us English is a second or third language. Most people here are native Spanish speakers. And still English prevails as the dominant language. Like a colonial power. Das ist aber komisch, oder?

The questions, answers and phrases in these videos are all based on actual conversations that we have had together here. This installation horizontalizes the language powers, enabling multilingual conversations in which everyone can speak in their most comfortable language.