A Few Words From the Yakut Language

Leroy Berger is currently artist-in-residence at airWG. A Few Words From the Yakut Language is Leroy's ongoing research into Noord en Oost Tartarye, a book written by a Dutch statesman and Amsterdam’s mayor Nicolaes Witsen in the 17th century. This book is noted as the first time many indigenous languages from Inner Eurasia were recorded in written form, including Sakha (Yakut) — the language Leroy, as an indigenous Sakha, heard all around him as a child but was never taught. Now, as an immigrant living in the Netherlands, Leroy attempts to look and examine the oddity that is the page containing Sakha and Dutch words, reflecting on his relationships with both languages, as well as looking into the work and legacy of Witsen.

The iteration of the project that was developed in airWG residency consists of two parts: a personal interpretation of the source material through visual and audio experiments, and a collection of historical facts and biographies that attempts to look into the unlikely connection between the Netherlands and Sakha Republic — two places more than 6000 kilometers away from each other. 

The opening will take place on September 11 at 17:00.