Welcome to Est. 1999, the official blog of Abraham Translations. As is perhaps easy to surmise, the name of this blog reflects the year that Abraham Translations was founded.
It all began with the correction of a few texts that had been translated by another time-pressed translator. Within the year, translating had become my main source of income; now, it has long been the only way I put bacon on the table.
I am rather proud of many of the projects on which I have worked.
Est. 1999, basically, is a visual confirmation of past projects, a blowing of my own horn, a presentation of translator-related topics, and an occasional departure into other areas that I deem worthy of presenting. Enjoy.

Thursday 26 March 2015

The Boat God of the Lakeside Sports Club – The 100 Me, Part 1 / Der Bootgott vom Seesportclub. Die 100 ME – Teil 1 (2006)

The German Trailer
(without Subtitles):
This entertaining if odd 81-minute-long art film is one of the first feature-length movies for which I ever did subtitles. (I still do subtitles often, but not spotting.)
The director and writer Robert Bramkamp is currently finishing up his next art film, Art Girls, which should hit the screens later this year (2015).
The plot to The Boat God of the Lakeside Sports Club – The 100 Me, Part 1? As found on the director's website: "Harold Enkert (Steffen Scheumann), a participant of Germany's job-creation measures and the reincarnation of the Sumerian Boat God Enki, goes through the myth anew with improvement in mind. Within a cinematic microcosm in which Lake Scharmützel (Berlin) geographically merges with the Mesopotamia of antiquity, Enki, as a divinity, presides over and expands work forms by promising humanity 100 new ME – one hundred new abilities to do, recognize, or be something. He co-operates with local partners who, when testing of their abilities, are advised and assisted by an international, ever-expanding network.
Parallel to this, 100 individuals are being given the chance to participate in www.enki100.net, an Internet story-telling project by Robert Bramkamp and Susanne Weirich."

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Ein Apartment in Berlin / An Apartment in Berlin (2013)

I translated the voiceover texts to this feature-length documentary film by Alice Agneskirchner. The film was produced by Gebrueder Beetz (or, as they prefer it written: gebrueder beetz), for whom I work regularly, in co-production with 3sat and RBB. The filmmaker initially got the film off the ground primarily through persistence and a Gerd-Ruge-Stipendium grant; the final product has proven to be rather a success at film festivals and has already been screened on German TV numerous times.
An Apartment in Berlin combines a historic look at the gradual dispossession and eventual deportation of a Jewish family in Berlin prior to WWII with the lives of three young Israelis who embark on a journey of refurnishing the Jewish family's original apartment. The result is an intriguing and at times tragic look into Jewish life, past and present.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

All the World's a Stage. Works from the Goetz Collection

One of the most recent catalog translations I've had the pleasure of doing was the one for this publication (ISBN 978-84-92543-66-3) to the exhibition of the same name at the Fundación Banco Santander in Madrid. The credit is there in the imprint, should you need proof. 
210 pages in length with 233 illustrations, the catalog texts are in Spanish, German, and English. I would like to make it clear that the texts that originated in Spanish were done by someone else, but all those that were originally written in German (by Ingvild Goetz, Karsten Löckemann, Katharina Bitz, Cornelia Gockel, Leo Lencsés, Larissa Michelberger, Susanne Touw, Katharina Vossenkuhl and Annabel Weichel) were translated by moi.
The exhibition, which is on display in the Sala de Arte of the Fundación Banco Santander from 21 February to 14 June 2015, presents a selection of pieces from one of the most important collections of contemporary art in Germany, the Sammlung Goetz. The leitmotif of the exhibition is the theatre, as is reflected in the show's title, which is a direct reference to the famous line found in William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It. The 93 pieces of the 27 artists selected by Karsten Löckemann, all representative works of the Goetz Collection, relate to the theatre and stage. Among the artists included are Matthew Barney, Janet Cardiff, Stan Douglas, Elmgreen & Dragset, Jeff Wall, Ulrike Ottinger, Candice Breiz, Hans-Peter Feldman, Candida Höfer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hans Op de Beek, Michael Kunze, Jonathan Meese, Laurie Simmons, and Mike Kelley, the last of whom I had as my senior advisor during my BFA studies at Otis Art Institute Los Angeles many a moon ago.