Qalqalah قلقلة is an editorial, artistic, and curatorial platform composed of Line Ajan, Virginie Bobin, Montasser Drissi, Victorine Grataloup, Vir Andres Hera and Salma Mochtari. Conceived as a trilingual platform in English, Arabic and French, Qق operates out of France, responding to the postcolonial issues at stake through political, linguistic, aesthetical, and epistemological lenses.

Qق’s research centers on the political relations that play through, and in-between, languages. While it has gained importance in the French artistic context, translation — notably as a collective practice — represents an essential tool for us. As the French language is losing hegemony on a global scale, and as the Arabic language is being stigmatized on a national level, linguistic issues continue to guide our practices and help us tackle crucial political questions.

Since October 2023, our collective has notably refocused its activities around solidarity with Palestine. Meanwhile, the instrumentalization of language, censorship, and the complicit invisibilization of Palestinian voices have emphasized the gaps separating institutional discourses and their practices; this has led us to question the potential for action in collective work. In a reactionary, authoritarian, and discriminatory context, we found in Qق a space of attachments, long-lasting friendships, engagement, and learning.

The collective was founded in 2018, but Qق lived a previous life under the form of a bilingual magazine in French and English, published from 2015 to 2018 by Bétonsalon and KADIST in Paris. The name Qalqalah قلقلة was borrowed from a fictional character born under Sarah Rifky’s pen. Taking Qق out of an institutional framework, and re-anchoring it into Arabic language, have provoked theoretical and political reconfigurations that are still ongoing.