Vulgar Eloquence is a mobile public art platform that draws upon Dante Aligheri’s De Vulgari Eloquentia which articulates an interest in attributing the same value to local dialects as that associated with Latin.

Vulgar Eloquence is a mobile public art platform that draws upon Dante Aligheri’s De Vulgari Eloquentia which articulates an interest in attributing the same value to local dialects as that associated with Latin. The platform is dedicated to a meditation on language construction through a nomadic toy library and a series of artist video projections each accompanied by critical texts extrapolated from the research platform Black Archive Alliance. Various themes engaging Black history in the context of Italy tether the fleeting public interventions to sites that have been chosen based on historical or social relevance to themes. Each site is enriched by the layering of languages and each work by the additional layers. The first volume was developed as a part of Estate Fiorentina 2021 and involved the work of Kevin Jerome Everson, Lerato Shadi, Anike Joyce Sadiq, Helina Metaferia and Thiago Sun in collaboration with Amos Ferro in dialogue with the research of Jordan Anderson, Angelica Pesarini, Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu, Simao Amista and Jessica Sartiani.