UNESCO Cities of Literature commemorate International Mother Language Day

21 February is International Mother Language Day, a day that promotes unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

The worldwide network of UNESCO Cities of Literature, including Barcelona, is taking part in various activities, such as an exhibition in Manchester and online with ten other UNESCO Cities of Literature on the theme of “Threads”. The exhibition includes creative, textile and writing materials from Odessa, Ukraine, and nine other Cities of Literature, included in Ukrainian defence camouflage networks created with a technique called “Kikimora”.

Kikimora is also a character from Slavic fairy tales and can be good or evil depending on who she deals with. To these nets creators tie in symbolic lines of poetry, woven hearts and ribbons before they are sent to be used to protect people and equipment.

Among the materials also on display at the exhibition are works of fine art embroidered by Sísí Ingólfsdóttir, a feminist artist from Reykjavík, Iceland; a traditional dress from Granada; handkerchiefs with woven Frisian poetry that were used to greet the boats at a cultural event in Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands. Wrocław, Poland, has commissioned a text and a work of art from Angelika Kukioła.

Melbourne, in Australia, and Exeter, Nottingham and Manchester, in the United Kingdom, also contribute poetry and works of art to the exhibition.

You will find the digital version of the exhibition at this link.

In Barcelona, the fact that up to 300 languages are spoken in the city will be celebrated for a whole month, and the results of a new survey on multiculturalism will be presented. The events will be hosted by 8 libraries and will include workshops for children, lectures on languages such as Arabic, Amazigh, Armenian, Kurdish and Persian, and performances by artists and poets on the mapping of familiar languages. We will provide more information.