MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Matti Braun’s installation Bunta Garbo considers the work of Belgian lawyer and writer Andres Juste (1918-1998). Juste was one of the main proponents of the artificial ‘universal’ language Ido. Ido, depending on opinion, is a deviation or refinement of the most renowned universal language, Esperanto. Ido was the result of the findings of a special delegation on auxiliary languages formed at the 1900 World Fair in Paris, who proposed to adopt a refined version of Esperanto. The idea was to create a language to be more transformational, of neutral gender, without accents that obstructed print production, and with Slavic syntax removed. ‘Esperanto Reformita’, or ‘Ido’ as it became known – an Esperanto suffix meaning ‘descended from’ – inevitably caused a rupture in the aspirations of utopian linguists. Juste, the most renowned writer in Ido, was passionate about the language, producing approximately twenty-five self-published novels, translations and collections of poems, as well as many pamphlets. Bunta Garbo, named after a book of poems translated to Ido by Juste, is a series of alternative propositions for covers of his published books. The cover designs are presented in relation to a wooden structure using a ‘rhizomatic’ design, evoking the divergent variations and interconnections in the formation of ideas and cultural practices.