Scapes of Remembrance
2021
Shown at Sattelkammer, Bern
How do we sustainably process a collective trauma? What will we remember, what should we preserve for future generations? And what spaces could be created to give meaning to the often unsettling events?
Scapes of Remembrance is dedicated to the bird flu, the first zoonotic disease the artist learned about in the summer of 2004, when she was only ten years old. While writing a text about touching animals in November 2020, in the midst of the current pandemic, a long-forgotten childhood memory slowly began to reappear on the surface of the artist‘s memory and dreamscapes. Through a two-part installation these vaguely remembered events were taken out of the artist‘s mind and put into a physical scenery that freezes the memories and dreams it represents: The first room contains fragments of childhood memories. A soundpiece tells the story about finding an injured bird in the garden and fearing the touch of wild animals, while a voice hums in the background. In the second room, a video installation questions the often disastrous relationship between humans and stock animals. It is installed in the setting of a bar, but it is neither crewed nor functional; rather, it represents the idea of a bar and all the notions associated with these specific interior spaces. The visitors, who enter the installation alone and through a wardrobe, are left unaccompanied in a spatial staging that mocks its‘ original reference: no bartenders, no alcohol, no people to talk to, no relief, no emerging prosperity, and no perspective. Although the two spatial installations function quite differently, they are connected by the intention of capturing a past, almost forgotten event and linking it to what is happening in the present.
Both the First World War and the Spanish Flu were followed by a time of upswing, confidence, carelessness, and excess. It was the time of the fanciest bars and parties - a time when masterpieces of art, literature, and design were created. Although life returned, the next crisis followed just a few years later. What seems to be characteristic not only of the Roaring Twenties but above all of the 20th century, is the tense relationship between the often traumatic events and the people who experienced them. The past was condemned and the gaze was directed only to the future and the progress it promised. Until now, the Spanish flu has offered little cause for discussion or commemoration. Although it cost the lives of an estimated 50 million people, it does not seem to have a place in our collective memory.
Scapes of Remembrance confronts visitors with two spatial installations that propose to actively commemorate collective experiences - by diving into one‘s own archive, memories, and dreams and transforming them into something physical that can be preserved and visited by others. The work questions not only the catastrophic consequences of late capitalism for human and non-human beings but also how forgetting about historical crises can actually help to push the next one.
Shown at Kunstraum Sattelkammer, Bern
