I Used to Stand by the Window and the Sun Would Almost Burn my Face, but that Day, I Remember Clearly, It Actually Did
2020
Shown at Kunsthaus Baselland for Life, Love, Justice BA & MA Fine Arts Diploma exhibition, Academy of Art & Design FHNW HGK
Upon entering I Used to Stand by the Window and the Sun Would Almost Burn my Face, but that Day, I Remember Clearly, It Actually Did, 2020, Anita Mucolli’s graduation installation at Kunsthaus Baselland, I find myself in a dark antechamber in which my gaze is immediately caught by a note displaying the few sentences above. Somewhere between instruction and anticipation, the note sets the tone. It leads to another door, through which one may access a second room. Such choreographed path is somewhat evident yet Kafkaeske in its nightmarish exiguity. The next and final room, according to the artist, is a memory. Or rather, it’s the memory of a someone’s memory, or the spatial and sensorial reconstruction of it. It is set in the future, yet displays something from the past of its owner. This near-by future is by all means similar to my present; the ageless bedspread on which I inevitably decided to sit, the dusty chess of drawers, the dull bedside lamp, the hustle and bustle of the city travelling by the wind that blows against the curtains in front of the gaping window. I picture myself in this mid-size cheap hotel room, probably in the summer, when the heated minds and sweaty bodies are the most likely to mobilize. The smell in the room further nourishes my imagination, and tells me that this very moment is deceptively quiet before the storm. Alone in this room, knowing that no one is watching, I allow myself to take full possession of this memory. The following visitor will have to deal with it. Based on the idea that whenever a memory is called up by the brain it may be altered by some contextual parameters, Mucolli’s installation deliberately uses generic architectural and sonic cues in order to place the viewer in what can be understood as a neutral collective memory; one that, arguably carries elements that many people, to one extent or another, have a recollection of. This is what makes her installation participatory in a non-performative way, while the collective action takes place almost by means of a telephone game, step by step, one viewer’s experience at the time. Science-fiction, cold War ephemera and survivalist bunkers are among Mucolli’s references of choice, they have in common that when diluted into visual commonplaces, they become resistant to time. With a dash of hope and speculation, Mucolli’s I Used to Stand by the Window and the Sun Would Almost Burn my Face, but that Day, I Remember Clearly, It Actually Did, provides Athe perfect place to curb one’s cravings for eternity.
- Elise Lammer, curator and writer
Shown at Kunsthaus Baselland
