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(DIS)REMEMBERING: AN ARCHIVE OF ME AND MY FATHER

“(Dis)remembering: an archive of me and my father”, is the first outcome of the practice based research “(Dis)remembering”.

 

A participatory experience and installation lasting three hours took place at LPAC (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre) as part of the mini festival that was organized from the MA/MFA: Choreographing Live Art students;

 

A personal archive of memories, thoughts and information regarding the complicate relationship with my father was created from material originating before, during and after skype conversations with my father over the period of a month. Voice recordings, self-portraits, drawings, unsent letters, video depicting the symbolic impact each conversation had on me, constituting a database shared with the audience in a format of installation with which they were allowed to interact. 

 

A the entrance of the space, the visitors received a sheet of paper with the following message:

 

WELCOME

to the archive of memories, experiences and thoughts about the troubled relationship with my father.

 

Here you may find traces and information that shed light on the nature of that relationship.


You are here not just to skim through and read these data but most importantly  to take an active role in making it…disappear.


By entering in this space you consent to select the data you want to eradicate, eliminate or change by using the tools provided. take your time and feel free to put this archive in to oblivion.
 

PERFORMING AS CURATOR:

Within the space, I was perform as the artist’s curator (myself). In this role I welcome visitors and after a short tour with further explanations of how they could experience the space, they are left alone to read, observe, destroy, watch, cut etc what was exposed. I am there in order to keep locating more material in each place/sector. There are four section containing data :
 

  • unsent letters

  • personal thoughts written on a blackboard

  • photo(s)

  • video(s) and sound.


The visitors eliminate data and I add data as curator to create a space in a continuous state of flux.

MULTIPLE LAYERS OF INSTALLATION’S CONTENT:

- Sharing intimacy and memories with the spectators and the consent that they could destroy the original data. This ia a mechanism to experience my past in different ways and investigate how people react and use their agency when they are allowed to interfere with someone else’s personal information.

- A personal memory is shared and transformed into a sort of collective memory, due to the interference of other people. As is the case with the game ‘chinese whispers’ this creates an information exchange, at each step the opportunity for the information to be altered. By changing the nature of the data does the nature of the personal memory also change ?

- Archive and its role is definitely the relevant aspect of the installation. Usually archives aim to maintain something in safety from disappearance, as well as preserving it for the future. They function as a store of accumulated information for safe keeping. The idea of bringing a personal archive to its oblivion, proposed within the performance/installation, comes in juxtaposition with an archive’s primary function : an idea of letting go of the past and its restrictions.

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