THE TALE AND THE TONGUE. Feeling Words in your Mouth
Feeling Words in your Mouth is the eighth episode that follows a conversation with artist Itziar Okariz. The title for this conversation is a phrase by Itiziar Okariz: "To feel the words on the tongue, to feel the words in the mouth". This statement also connects with another idea of hers: "the voice is the body of words”. Language is felt in a body that feels with language. Itziar Okariz speaks Basque, Spanish and English. There is an intimate relationship between language and identity. We are different depending on the language we use. Itziar's artistic practice is influenced by sculpture, a fundamental practice in the Basque context. Her actions and performances bear witness of how bodies not only take space, but how social space takes our bodies.Okariz's body has many things at hand: music, hair, gesture and repetition, the traditional Basque cry of Irrintzi, echo, breath, yoga, light, language and the disappearance of text... even dreams. Itziar turns her dreams into short paragraphs. She makes us linger over the same sentence, which is never the same sentence. She gives rhythm to her dreams, literally, she turns them into sound matter. Dreams are very intimate experiences in which others are present and absent at the same time. Dreams are similar to art actions: there are people who are part of them without ever being aware of it.