(DIS)REMEMBERING
art project by Fenia Kotsopoulou
(DIS)REMEMBERING: THE REMNANTS
A personal archival space of data about the troubled relationship with my father has been already displayed in order to be changed/destroyed/transformed/disappeared by the audience. The remnants of the old memory, retouched by strange hands create now the a new experience. Nothing is lost...neither the unspoken words, nor the unsent letters.
A kind of “dadaistic” composition, apparently marked by nonsense and incongruity, symbolizes the re-composition of personal memories that comes back to myself as a “gift” from others. At the same time, in the space there are all the other remaining elements/data from the previous performance (videos/broken cd/destroyed photographic album/curator’s stamp) inside a cage of pigeon holes.
“(Dis)remembering: the remnants”, is the second development of my research, taken the form of a participatory installation. The focus IS still on memory, archive, and the participation of the audience who keep on changing the nature of the original work.
The visitors are invited to use the leftovers from the previous performance “(Dis)remembering: an archive of me and my father" - pieces of paper with sentences and words from letters written to my father. These pieces are the material for a collage- a new letter the visitor composes which has as recipient: myself.
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The cage has multiple symbolics meaning thus is present in all the four performances. It is the main object that functions in several modes : as a scenographic element, as a metaphoric place of imprisoned memories, as a carrier of messages for the audience.
This participatory performance/installation reflects the process of memory based on a constant construction deconstruction and reconstruction of information.
