#TakeOver: Ways to remember
In a seminar at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, master and bachelor students from the Institute of Art History intensively accompanied the process of creating the temporary exhibition “Tell me about yesterday tomorrow”. They dealt with selected works of art, were contact persons for the visitors at the opening on November 27, 2019 and interviewed several artists. This has resulted in contributions to the blog for the exhibition.
The work of Canadian artist Brenda Draney deals with the process of memories becoming stories. By whom and how they are told, is also a question of perspective and interpretation. I talked to the artist about different possibilities to remember and to reminisce.
As we did not manage to set up a personal meeting during her time in Munich, Brenda Draney answered my questions via e-mail.
What is the biggest difference between narrated and experienced history?
“The biggest difference between these two are the distance between the event being discussed and the person discussing it. When the distance is greater, such as in a narrated history, it might be filled with all that the person carries with them as well as the context. Every conversation we have, will fall short of communicating exactly, so this distance and what we fill it with is important. Conversely, experienced history might hold its memory, its information somewhere where language may fail to articulate. And sometimes the experience is enough, and articulating it in any way may be too difficult.”
How does your work deal with individual and collective memories and their differences?
“I am not sure I see it as a binary. I think there are ways that a collective memory might be very personal. And I think the personal memories provide something vital to a collective memory. They provide what is human. In fact I suspect that what is personal about those memories might be what moves us towards the response to the question of why we would try to remember.”
Would you say that memory connects people or separates them?
“Memory itself may not be able to either connect or separate. What connects us are things like empathy. What might separate us are when we believe that our truth or our identity is threatened by someone else’s. If we might be able to be expansive this could be a connector.”
What is more reliable: History or memory?
“Ha! Neither. And both. I was in a taxi today and the driver was talking about an airline he was flying on. They made an announcement that none of the passengers believed. When I asked why no one believed the airline he said “well, you can believe them if you want to”.”
What does memory and history mean to you as a Canadian first nation artist and how does your ancestry influence your work?
“My history influences my work much like anyone’s. It is the lens through which I see the world. I come from a family where memories might be questioned and to get it wrong might be an offence. I come from a community where our memories were subjects for institutions. I see that this is connected to my own practice but as the saying goes “I don’t know who discovered the water but I am pretty sure it was not the fish”.”
By Lucy Spitzkopf, , a student of art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich
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#TakeOver: Ways to remember
In a seminar at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, master and bachelor students from the Institute of Art History intensively accompanied the process of creating the temporary exhibition “Tell me about yesterday tomorrow”. They dealt with selected works of art, were contact persons for the visitors at the opening on November 27, 2019 and interviewed several artists. This has resulted in contributions to the blog for the exhibition.
The work of Canadian artist Brenda Draney deals with the process of memories becoming stories. By whom and how they are told, is also a question of perspective and interpretation. I talked to the artist about different possibilities to remember and to reminisce.
As we did not manage to set up a personal meeting during her time in Munich, Brenda Draney answered my questions via e-mail.
What is the biggest difference between narrated and experienced history?
“The biggest difference between these two are the distance between the event being discussed and the person discussing it. When the distance is greater, such as in a narrated history, it might be filled with all that the person carries with them as well as the context. Every conversation we have, will fall short of communicating exactly, so this distance and what we fill it with is important. Conversely, experienced history might hold its memory, its information somewhere where language may fail to articulate. And sometimes the experience is enough, and articulating it in any way may be too difficult.”
How does your work deal with individual and collective memories and their differences?
“I am not sure I see it as a binary. I think there are ways that a collective memory might be very personal. And I think the personal memories provide something vital to a collective memory. They provide what is human. In fact I suspect that what is personal about those memories might be what moves us towards the response to the question of why we would try to remember.”
Would you say that memory connects people or separates them?
“Memory itself may not be able to either connect or separate. What connects us are things like empathy. What might separate us are when we believe that our truth or our identity is threatened by someone else’s. If we might be able to be expansive this could be a connector.”
What is more reliable: History or memory?
“Ha! Neither. And both. I was in a taxi today and the driver was talking about an airline he was flying on. They made an announcement that none of the passengers believed. When I asked why no one believed the airline he said “well, you can believe them if you want to”.”
What does memory and history mean to you as a Canadian first nation artist and how does your ancestry influence your work?
“My history influences my work much like anyone’s. It is the lens through which I see the world. I come from a family where memories might be questioned and to get it wrong might be an offence. I come from a community where our memories were subjects for institutions. I see that this is connected to my own practice but as the saying goes “I don’t know who discovered the water but I am pretty sure it was not the fish”.”
By Lucy Spitzkopf, , a student of art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich