Should Have Been My Mother Tongue - II. Culture

In how far does language influences your cultural taste? In the three-part lecture series Should Have Been My Mother Tongue, Ahilan Ratnamohan examines the impact of language on society, based on his own learning of the Tamil language.

In part 2 he concentrates on social customs, music, film and literature. How are certain linguistic aspects and the understanding of such cultural modes intertwined? And in how far is his extremely Western taste in culture a product of language?

After the first part at Kaaistudio’s, this second part takes place during the Passa Porta Festival. The third part will be presented at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

• Ahilan Ratnamohan, born in Australia to a Sri Lankan and Tamil family, is a theatre maker with an obsession for language. His interdisciplinary work explores language acquisition as a form of performance and vice versa.  His performances have surprising, unconventional forms. In 2021, together with Sulaiman Addonia, he kicked off the series the Wonders of Multilingualism (together with Passa Porta). His solo Alle woorden die ik nog niet kende premiered at Kaaitheater in 2021. For the next three years, we will welcome him as artist-in-residence at Kaaitheater.