Tudo aquilo de que não nos lembramos 2022
[ All that we do not remember ]
July 22 — August 27, 2022
Jahmek Contemporary Art Luanda, Angola
Sound Installation
sound, sewing on fabric, 3 poufs
100 x 100 x 40 cm, sound system.
Luanda, Angola
In collaboration with the Academia
do Empreendedor do Governo Provincial
de Luanda.
The space is entirely filled with blue fabric, floor, walls and ceiling become one unity. Stripes of fabric are sewn on fabric pieces, which are joined together to big units in the form of curtains. The edges of the fabric stripes are frayed. The fabric fringes are both a fragile, poetic detail of the installation, but also an open wound, something has been torn apart by force. Nevertheless it is a very tactile experience and the visitors are for once allowed to touch the installation. While many installations envision a future through digital means, “All that we do not remember” expresses a current reality.
The artworks' materiality and tactile analogue quality represent something human, personal and within reach. It delivers a sense of urgency for being in the now. The patterns, which emerge on the fabric’s surface, reconnect with the infinite pattern of time.
A sitting landscape emerges from the floor, camouflaged into the same fabric stripes. The visitors are invited to sit or lie down, be together and emerge into the installation, listening to the sound, which is rekindled from the film „Traces of loss“. The sound is composed of (underwater) breathing, wind and fire. Breath is a metaphor for the soul: the soul of breath that many cul-
tures believe is the place of the life force, and the soul of every human being. Also most life forms start their existence floating in liquid,
the folds of the fabric may also refer in a poetic way to female genitals, which are the passage into life for every single human on this planet.
It feels almost like being in the mother womb again, this feeling of connection can be both humbling and healing as we begin to question our place within the web of life. The sounds calm the nervous system of the visitors, and they are invited to slow down and to breathe and feel with the sounds (of nature), as part
of the interwoven patterns of a much
greater whole.
The title of the installation refers to a book
that also reflects my family history; it is about the flight from the East at the end of WWII, about forgetting and repressing. I remember the silence and glances in which all the pain sat. There are memories that continue to have an effect, subconsciously also in the following gen-
erations. There are fears that cannot be explain-
ed from one’s own experience. All societies (as all humans) have their history / silence / trau-
ma that needs to be healed, especially those that have suffered from colonialism and civil war, but also those societies which have to come to terms with having imposed such violence in the past; including the on-going violence we inflict on mother earth itself, we seem to have for-
gotten the ancient wisdoms of how to take care of her. We should be reminded that all life is interconnected, spiralling together through space, on this beautiful blue planet. Or as Jeremy Lent puts it: “thinking to help catalyse an alternative to our expired worldview – one based on interconnectedness, within ourselves, with other humans and the entire non-human world”.
The installation may relate to themes of the past (ancestors; the “Kianda” myth; transatlantic slave trade; being in the womb), present (water scarcity; sea pollution; overfishing; restless life), and an imagined better future for ourselves and our planet, created in and by communities, as group consciousness can accomplish so much more than any human can do individually.
Let’s celebrate togetherness and interconnectivity!
Consultant
Dinamene Wilson Manuel
Production team
Benjamin Tchianeque
Becas Bernardo
Delfina Sapi
Delfina Mafulo
Esperança Baptista
Francisco Cangombe
Joana Lucamba
Maria Manuel
Miria Bula
Nzola Martins
Rosa Mawongo
Sonia de Andrade
Teresa Coxi
Sponsors
ALCAAL Têxtil Textang II
Academia do Empreendedor de Luanda
Special thanks to
Julia Villegas
Woodvibe & Vita, Samora, Bruno
Geraldo José
Claudio Chocolate
Sandra Poulson