de lo infraordinario y el gusto en evidenciarlo

01:24 Apr 16, 2013 

What gentlemen! So gracious and kind. You two are an example for all of us Prozians, what a pleasure it is to have you as colleagues. I'm in awe!

22:23 Apr 15, 2013 

That's very generous of you: typically so :)

22:14 Apr 15, 2013 

I for one have to say that I find your response thoroughly convincing. If I had a white flag handy, I'd have it hoisted to full staff.... :)

22:07 Apr 15, 2013 

I am not, of course, suggesting that this word will be familiar to all general readers, but it is plainly familiar to this artist and he assumes his readers will understand what he means. Similarly, the writer of that film review I quoted assumes that readers of a fairly highbrow British newspaper interested in modern culture will be able to cope with this term.

Without wishing to sound too cynical, and speaking as someone who has translated quite a lot of essays for exhibition catalogues, I am fairly sure that the readership of this sort of text is pretty limited and doesn't by any means include all those who attend the show. Usually only people really interested in this sort of stuff can be bothered to read the catalogue.

21:43 Apr 15, 2013 

1. I am sure this artist is using the word "infraordinario" in its usual sense, which is Perec's sense. Infra-ordinary is not a synonym of ordinary, nor does it carry any dark or sinister connotations. It denotes an ordinariness that is unnoticed yet paradoxically demands attention. To quote the editor of Perec's 1973 essay in English:

"The term 'infra-ordinary' designates an everydayness that requires a kind of quixotic or excessive attention. Perec uses neologisms like 'infra-ordinary' and 'endotic' to describe an everyday that is neither ordinary nor extraordinary, neither banal nor exotic. [...] Perec's task then is to foreground what is continually missed when traditional notions of significance are applied"
http://tinyurl.com/braarqx

Whether we think these distinctions are nonsense is irrelevant; this is what the artist in invoking, and we have to express it.

2. I presume the intended readership consists mainly of people who frequent art exhibitions and read catalogues, and do not require a footnote to the title of "The Poetics of the Infra-Ordinary" by Elvira Dyangani Ose of the Tate Modern, for example. Art essays use terms like this all the time.

21:12 Apr 15, 2013 

An interesting and--of course--well documented proposal that gives rise to the following considerations:
1.)
There is already a common English word that means the opposite of "extraordinary." That would be "ordinary." "Infra-ordinary" therefore intuitively suggests something dark, sinister, and forbidding. Hence my (admittedly uninformed) suggestion.
2.)
Accepting for the sake of argument that "infra-ordinary" is a widely accepted term in certain art circles, there remains the more fundamental question of whether the intended readership of the material here will readily understand the term without explanation (given that a lengthy footnote citing multiple sources doesn't seem to be an option here). If so, then "infra-ordinary" may be a viable translation here. If not, then not.