We Are Here

MSP Terminal 1, Gate C6

"Residents of Minnesota speak more than 100 languages at home and in their communities.

As a linguist, translator and lifetime collector of words, I wanted to capture this vibrant, ever-changing linguistic landscape and celebrate it in the shape of glowing language orbs. Folded out of tracing paper, hand-printed and hand-lettered, each orb represents a linguistic community present in this part of the world.

Using the most recent American Community Survey estimates available (2017), I listed the languages spoken at home by more than 1,500 people in Minnesota. I then looked for community-approved translations of the word “here” in those idioms and researched their writing system.

We Are Here is an ode to multilingualism and a love-letter; to my mom, who grew up in Morocco speaking French, Spanish and Arabic, and to my dad, who spoke Polish and Slovenian at home."
-Karine Rupp-Stanko