GUSHI

Saturday 19 October, 9:00 pm
Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine

GUSHI (Slovenian minority in Friuli)
A project that blossomed in the sprawling metropolis of Buenos Aires and flourished in the tiny village of Postregna. Gushi and Raffaele have lived in the Natisone Valleys for over twenty years now. Outside their window, the concrete buildings of Argentina’s capital have given way to the lush green of the forests bordering the Natisone River. Despite this change of scenery, the echo of an urban, slow and enveloping sound, full of trip-hop, neo-soul and breakbeat, still pulses in their music. Between their sound installations and soundtracks for independent films, they have found time to experiment with a language that is not their own, but which now belongs to them!
 
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INTERVIEW WITH GUSHI

What is an untranslatable phrase, an expression or a word in your language that you love? And why?  
Počival: it stands for the place where the people carrying hay would rest. It derives from the verb počivat. In those places there was a stone that was placed in a specific way so that one could sit, recline or lean. This word brings back and recalls a peasant tradition of subsistence, a world that has partly disappeared.

What are 3 adjectives you would use to describe your language? Why did you choose them? 
One-of-a-kind, because it changes in each country or valley, genuine, but also motherly because it is our first language. New and fresh for those who take it and make it their own.

Some people think that making music/art in a minoritized language closes many doors – what are instead the doors that it has opened to you? 
To us it doesn’t matter if there are any open doors, and we don’t feel like we have to pry open the closed ones. As a matter of fact, there should be no doors….
Music and art are intimate needs rooted in the depths of our being, and free expression is the path we are on.

If you could make an appeal to anyone to keep their language alive, what would you recommend? What do you see as the biggest challenges or difficulties to maintain your language?
The difficulty lies in the number of people who speak it, we need to widen the pool of its speakers, and therefore we need to use it. We need to teach it, without forcing it, and to make it as natural as possible in interpersonal relationships.

How would you respond to someone who considers your language old and obsolete? 
It is our task to ensure that a language does not become obsolete and it is up to the intelligence of others to understand this.
It is the people who decide when and if a language becomes obsolete.

Our Festival Senjam Beneške Piesmi is the clearest example that a language can keep itself alive; in fact, each edition is characterised by art and language events that are constantly changing and evolving.

A short sentence to describe your music
Our music is exactly who we are at this very moment of our lives.