Mardoukhi No.15 : The Art of Memory

Collection, Book & Installation

Other Music Academy (OMA) / Weimar / DE
2015

Asking about the practices and principles of remembering and forgetting and how memory or forgetfulness is forced, this project tries to challenge these concepts, as they could be explored in an artistic practice. It focuses on how often-intangible aspects of memory can be communicated and how one creates and questions the linkages of image and memory. The key in this investigation is the ‘Materialization of Memory’ by way of attachment to objects, as is the observation that the concept of memory has often been figured in terms of a container of objects.
In order to portray terms and concepts related to the memory, I have introduced a ‘Memory Site’, ‘Mardoukhi No.15’, an abandoned house located in Tehran, as a proposed imaginary subject matter for the art of memory.

‘Representation’, meaning to present for the second time or to reproduce, to look alike or to resemble and to use the signs and metaphors that stand for something else, is the main strategy that has been applied in visualisation of memory. Exploring the themes of past, memory, loss and death in my creative practice, I have been looking at what are the best metaphors or containers of these less accessible issues to illustrate visually. In this respect, I suggested taking a second look at ‘Objects’ and trying to understand their glory, their haunting and evocative nature, through recognizing them as material things, which bare more meanings than their simple functionality and introduced them as things that provide us with association and reflection and therefore as containers of memory. I have been asking about how the vast culture of collecting and preservation functions in turning ordinary objects to ‘Memory Objects’ and how ‘Collections’, as containers of memory, take role in its materialization.

House location on the Map:

After digging through the other artists’ works, dealing with the same kind of subjects such as collective mourning, personal loss, cultural/familial identity or autobiographical narrative, illustrating their similarities and comparing them, also studying the intentions of the artists in using photographs, collections and installations, I intended to employ the process of collecting objects as containers of memory within the house, for the work of memory. Considering the narrow line that separate storytelling from documenting and the act of collecting for the purpose of forgetting or remembering. This effort formed a body of raw material that I have used to create a book, which is displayed in a format of an installation.

Some Observations within the House:

1. From THE COLLECTION OF OBJECTS :
THE MEMORY BANK

455 scanned images of 170 MEMORY OBJECTS

2. From THE COLLECTION OF THE WORDS

3. BOOKS AS THE CONTAINER OF REMEMBERING

Scanned images of the objects + Scanned images of the words /
Archival inkjet print on different papers

4. INSTALLATION & DISPLAY

A table / 2 books (theory & art book) / A block of selected text written by Sherry Turkle / 4 postcards / Curated selection of collection on the wall /
A vitrine containing of the material used for the production of the book : engraved words on pieces of plexiglass + the number of the house 15 /
(the only physical object brought from the house) / 5 framed posters / Colorful hexagonal wooden pieces installed in the space

GOLRIZ BEHGOO