Ymagor
Here, we match each other –
There is no language faltering, you are exactly as you say you are,
and I believe you.
Ymagor is a chapbook co-edited with Dylan Huw as part of Pegwn’s 2023-4 programme. Navigating ideas of linguistic overlaps and inbetweenesses, the publication emerged from an open call for a week-long artist residency at Platfform 2, Y Fenni Train Station. Contributions by Toyosi Adenuga, Renée Eshel and Morgan Owen are closely anchored to the site’s character as a place of simultaneous transit and reflection, impermanence and lived history.
Ymagor is available to pick up at Book Space Cardiff, Broadleaf Books (Y Fenni), or contacting info@peak.cymru.
The Pegwn residency, undertaken by Toyosi Adenuga, was conceived as a continuation of Pegwn’s previous programmes, which centred collective artistic research across languages and disciplines at Platfform 2. Toyosi deepened long-term research into the visual representation of embodied speech and abstracted language, informed by her personal relationship with Yorùbá and an engagement with Peak’s linguistic specificity and artistic networks. Toyosi’s residency culminated in a roaming workshop around Abergavenny; its structure and prompts have been reconfigured as poetic interventions for Ymagor.
‘perfedd – pêr fedd’ by Morgan Owen is guided by a dialogue between the inbetweenness and constant motion that characterises Platfform 2, and an interrogation of the linguistic and poetic potential of borderlands. Demanding an understanding of Cymraeg defined by malleability and mystery, Morgan speaks to “language borders” of various kinds, informed both by his upbringing speaking Welsh in predominantly English-speaking communities, and his work as a lexicographer, directly responsible for codifying the language.
Mirroring Morgan’s interest in “deranging and de-arranging” established vocabularies, ‘Cymru as’ is a sequence of memory prose-poems by Renée Eshel. Half-remembered anecdotes, folkloric fragments and stock-photo clichés of Wales and Welsh are kaleidoscopically collated, in service of an intimate exploration of plural class, language and national identities. Renée writes a contemporary Wales into being with an imagistic, dryly funny eye on the strangeness of youth, memory and politics.
Ymagor was launched at a special event at Book Space Cardiff, on 27th February 2025, which brought together all the contributors for an evening of readings and conversation.
Chapbook designed by Mark El-khatib and printed in collaboration with Biscuits Press, with an introductory essay by Dylan Huw.
goror iaith yw’r fan lle mae pellteroedd yn cyfarfod, lle mae’r
cyfarwydd a’r anghyfarwydd yn ymwau i’w gilydd
Llyfryn yw Ymagor wedi’i gyd-olygu gyda Dylan Huw, yn rhan o rhaglen 2023-4 Pegwn. Tyfodd y cyhoeddiad, sy’n archwilio syniadau o ororau a gorgyffyrddiadau mewn iaith, allan o alwad agored am breswylfa artist ym Mhlatfform 2, Gorsaf Drenau’r Fenni. Mae cyfraniadau Toyosi Adenuga, Renée Eshel a Morgan Owen wedi’u angori’n benodol at gymeriad y safle fel lle o symudedd a llonyddwch, yr amharhaol a’r hanesyddol fyw.
Mynnwch gopi o Ymagor o Book Space Cardiff, Broadleaf Books (y Fenni), neu drwy ebostio info@peak.cymru.
Toyosi Adenuga ymgymrodd yn y breswylfa Pegwn, y dyluniwyd fel parhad o raglenni blaenorol Pegwn, a ganolodd prosesau ymchwil gasglebol chwareus ar draws ieithoedd a chyfryngau o Blatfform 2. Dyfnhaodd Toyosi ei hymchwil hir-dymor mewn i ffyrdd o gyfleu (a haniaethu) iaith ymgorfforedig trwy ddulliau gweledol, gan ymweu ei pherthynas bersonol gymhleth gyda Yorùbá a deialogau gydag artistiaid yn rhwydweithiau Peak. Diweddodd ei phreswylfa mewn gweithdy diwrnod o hyd o gwmpas tre’r Fenni; mae’r strwythur a’r prompts dyluniodd Toyosi wedi eu hail-bwrpasu ar gyfer Ymagor fel ymyriadau barddonol.
Arweinir ‘perfedd – pêr fedd,’ cerdd Morgan Owen, gan ddeialog rhwng yr ymdeimlad sy’n nodweddu Platfform 2 o fod rhwng sawl lle ar unwaith, ac ymdreiddiad i botensial ieithyddol a barddonol gofodau ffiniol. Mae’n mynnu dealltwriaeth o’r Gymraeg a ddiffinir gan hyblygrwydd a dirgelwch, gan gyfeirio at ororau ieithyddol o wahanol fathau, mewn ffyrdd a ddylanwadir gan fagwraeth Morgan yn siarad Cymraeg mewn cymuned mwyafrif-Saesneg – ac hefyd ei swydd fel geiriadurwr, â chyfrifoldeb llythrennol dros ‘ddiffinio’ a chyfundrefnu ei geirfaoedd.
Mae dilyniant Renée Eshel o gof-gerddi rhyddiaethol, ‘Cymru as,’ yn adlewyrchu diddordeb Morgan mewn dad-drefnu a datgymalu ieithweddau normadol. Gyda chwilfrydedd kaleidosgopig, ymgasgla Renée rhith-atgofion o dyfu fyny, cyfeiriadaeth chwedlonol, a clichés llun-stoc o Gymreictod a’r Gymraeg i greu archwiliad agos-atoch o blethiad hunaniaethau dosbarth, iaith a chenedl. Ysgrifenna Renée y Gymru gyfoes gyda llygad graff ar ryfedd-dod ieuenctid, cof a gwleidyddiaeth.
Lansiwyd Ymagor mewn digwyddiad arbennig yn Book Space Cardiff , ar 27ain o Chwefror 2025, lle arweiniodd y cyfranwyr a’r golygydd noson o ddarlleniadau a sgwrsio.
Dylunwyd y llyfryn gan Mark El-khatib, a’i brintio gyda Biscuits Press, gydag ysgrif gyflwyniadol gan Dylan Huw.
