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103
Karin Sander, wordsearch, 2002

Chapter: wordsearch - Concept and Poetry

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An Art Project after September 11
Nowhere else in the world are so many languages spoken within such a confined space as in New York City. When Karin Sander’s wordsearch was realized, the attacks of September 11 were scarcely a year past. The atmosphere remained tense, and debates about migration, religion, and identity showed no sign of abating. wordsearch was part of "Moment," an international series of public art projects organized by Deutsche Bank. Although the project had been planned long before the attack on the World Trade Center, it had gained a new and urgent relevance in 2002.

An Appeal for Diversity
Sander’s work is a call for multicultural coexistence. It was published on October 4, 2002, in The New York Times. Across four double-page spreads in the newspaper’s business section, normally reserved for daily stock listings, columns of words appear from 218 native languages spoken in New York. Each language is represented by a single word, contributed by a native speaker living in the city, standing in for the entire language—here, quite literally, “given a voice.” To realize the project, Sander and her team conducted extensive research and countless interviews.

A Translingual Sculpture
Each of these words, which were personally meaningful or characteristic of the linguistic community of the “word donor,” was then translated into all the other languages spoken in New York. The resulting textual fabric, covering the newspaper pages, can be read like a dictionary. At the same time, it forms an abstract image: even from a short distance, it appears as an elusive matrix. Sander herself describes the tens of thousands of printed pages as a “translingual sculpture.” Through the newspaper, the work returns to the very urban space from which it originates, blending as a mere pattern into the city in countless imaginable places. Just as graffiti shapes the urban landscape, the shimmering pattern of languages on the newspaper pages resonated with New York for a single day.

Audio

Note: The audio transcription is voiced by an AI.

Karin Sander, wordsearch, 2002
A translinguistic sculpture
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026. Courtesy of the artist and Esther Schipper Berlin/Paris/Seoul
Sammlung Deutsche Bank

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