Me acuerdo…

27.04.2016_29.07.2016

Adam Basanta, François Bucher&Lina López, José Guerrero, Ira Lombardía, Javier Peñafiel y MP&MP Rosado.

ME ACUERDO… (An Emotional Trial). Dedicated to Manel Clot
In 1962, Chris Marker conceptualised the 28 minute audiovisual experiment, La Jetée, which is now regarded as a classic within the genre of science fiction and has been defined as a photo-narrative by the director. This montage of Marker’s photography gives the accompanying narration a visual context. There is only a small sequence of movement where we are presented with a depiction of a man trying to rebuild the memory and aura of his lover some time before the outbreak of the third world war.
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Joe Brainard published, I Remember, in 1970, New York. It is an experimental text which contradicts traditional conventions associated with the idea of memory. Through his discussion of the surreal with the banal, he created a temporary parallax through which to view his childhood memories of 1950s Oklahoma, and his profound feelings integrated with 1970s New York. Brainard’s text has received much recognition, including Je me Souviens, (1978), by Georges Perec.
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In 2002, Manel Clot writes in El Circulo, for Dora García: he asks, “Do you remember the beginning of La Jetée?” The voiceover can be heard throughout the story: “This is the story of a man marked by a childhood memory”. The scene which upsets him, and whose meaning he was to grasp only years later, happened on the main pier, Orly, Paris airport. This is when he remembers things accurately and begins to acknowledge the memories he is revisiting.
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The fear, the memory, always uneasy. Maybe that is what I am most terrified of. Sometimes I think about it. Sometimes I have heard myself saying it out load. Sometimes I wish I could erase all that is stored in my head, in my conscience and in my unconscious – zero memory, which is not so much hidden but deleted. Would it prevent unconscious nightmares after remaining consistently present throughout the day? What would happen then? What would a person be without memory, without memories? In the end, no memory!
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In February 2016, whilst visiting ARCO, I discovered a piece of François Bucher’s work. Helen Chatelein, the protagonist of La Jetée, appears older, with a mirror that divides her face into two halves in perfect symmetry. Whilst talking with Carolina, I learned that Helene has serious memory problems and confuses reality and fiction. I keep that image in my memory. An image which is somehow split, halved.
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On 2 March, 2016, Manel Clot died. Thanks to him, I am familiar with La Jetée. Thanks to him I am interested in discovering different ways to approach the image. Thanks to him, I have discovered the pleasure of the written word and I have been inspired to write . And today, I will try to close the process. Perhaps, similar to the way in which Clot wrote for Dora García.
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“Me acuerdo…” is a curatorial experience about memory in the intersection of I remember and La Jetee. A rememberance of Manel Clot – because every project has a recipient. Send me an email that says, “I love you”.

Video performed by Pablo Martínez Conradi