The Memory Passage

date. 2019

city. Edinburgh, Athens

description. Performative, multichannel sound and video installation, concrete, light, smoke

collaboration. Dorothea Kalogianni (concept, video and installation co-creation), conducted by André Bellmont and Yati Durant, performed by Red Note Ensemble and Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra

“The Memory Passage” is a multichannel performative, video and sound installation. In 1922, the genocide of the Greek population residing in the broader area of Anatolia (now part of Turkey) took place. The ancestors of Ioannis’ family were part of that population. A member of the family, Manolis, was murdered in a mill as he was trying to escape to Greece. The installation entails a recorded performance which portrays the imaginary narration of the above story. Smoke, four video projections reacting with six loudspeakers places inside the venue, recall different perspectives of the same performance. Is it possible to have an anamnesis of an event in which you never took part? The artwork tackles aspects of narration, perception, and explores notions of collective memory, ephemerality and threshold.