The Tale and The Tongue: Feeling Words in your Mouth

<p><em>Feeling Words in your Mouth</em>, the eighth episode of <em>The Tale and the Tongue</em> series, follows a conversation with artist Itziar Okariz. The title is a phrase by Itiziar Okariz in which she emphasises the materiality of spoken language during her conversation with Sonia Fernández Pan: “To feel the words on the tongue, to feel the words in the mouth.”</p> <p>This statement also connects with the idea of “the voice is the body of words,” she further explains that words are almost empty. Like bodies, words do not exist by themselves either: they are in relation, they take on meaning in context. Language is felt in a body that feels with language.</p> <p>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. Even the tone of our voice changes. Language is a mirror without a fixed image. In Itziar Okariz’s work, language is like water that spills and holds at the same time, taking space. Her 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. Art critic Miren Jaio described Itziar Okariz’s approach to the body as a way of working with what is 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…</p>