Artist Talk: ‘Mementos’

About

Deptford does Art presents ‘Mementos’, a collective exhibition organised by students of the Transcultural Memory module, led by Astrid Schmetterling, part of the MA Contemporary Art Theory programme in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Exhibition: 13 – 16 June 2019

PV: Friday 14 June 7 – 10 pm 

Artist Talk: Saturday 15 June 3 pm

Silvia Caso | Frida Chen | | Eden Girma | Christine Gordon | Josh Grey-Jung | Wooyeon Hwang | Tina Keon | Elena Konyushihina | Julia Kozakiewicz | Agata  Łakińska | Hannah Morris | Imara Paternò Castello | Maggie Sava | Sarah Scott | Joohyun Song | Berny Tan 

“And this is in fact how I would like to conceive of transcultural memory: as the incessant wandering of carriers, media, contents, forms, and practices of memory, their continual travels and ongoing transformations through time and space, across social, linguistic, and political borders.”

—Astrid Erll, ‘Travelling Memory’

The sixteen creative projects presented here were conceived in response to a diverse set of academic texts, historical events, art works, fiction pieces, and films that were discussed over the course of fifteen weeks. Themes included: transcultural and multidirectional memory; memory between history and performativity; collective, connected and connective memories; traumatic memories; and the ethics of intergenerational witnessing and representation.

Given the freedom to use any medium and approach to engage with these major threads of contemporary memory studies, these projects manifest as poignant examinations of remembrance that diminish the boundaries between personal, abstract, cultural, historical. Ultimately, they affirm that memory is not something to be relegated to the past, but rather that which occurs in the present and with which we can and should actively work through.