Solo exhibition in Szklarnia FILMSCHOOL Łodz, Poland
November 27.11 – 30.12.2023
Curated by Anna Kazmierzcak
“Tracing Memories” is a participatory exhibition project by Jasmin Schaitl, with elements developed in collaboration with the participants from the “Tangible Practices” workshop. This exhibition lets us explore the complexities and potentialities of the sense of touch in connection with memory, reflecting on human beings as individual vessels of recollections. With a distinctive and remarkable ability, referred to as mental-time-travel (coined by Endel Tulving), it encapsulates the human skill of navigating through the landscapes of the past and potential futures. When one consciously applies this skill, the effect of shaping present, past, and future experiences becomes more tangible.
The exhibition engages visitors to activate their sense of touch and, simultaneously, relive and retrieve a past joyful memory of themselves. Visitors are provided with a malleable material that they can transform while remembering their memory in silence. This pliable material turns an ephemeral memory into a physical substance that can remain in the exhibition space. This process supports visitors in exploring the transformative power of the past on the present and their individual agency. It invites visitors to become active creators of their experience, perceiving the impact of joyful past experiences on their present state of mind.
“Tracing Memories” is a further development of Schaitl’s ongoing project “reciprocity” partially exhibited here. “reciprocity” consists of works displayed at Galerie Altán Klamovka in Prague in 2021, the first participatory exhibition where visitors were invited to materialize their memories into malleable material. As in “Tracing Memories,” visitors could place their materialized memories on an existing site-specific wire sculpture hanging in the space. To archive the exhibition, the artist carefully transferred the memories onto a separate surface to highlight them. She then drew the shadow of the sculpture and later pressed the site-specific aluminum sculpture into an archival cube shape. A document of this transformation is presented in the form of a video.
The new collaborative work with participants of the “Tangible Practices” workshop is developed during the weekend prior to the opening. As a collective, the workshop group creates a site-specific environment, consisting of their translated and materialized memories from the workshop.
with the kind support Federal Ministry, Republic of Austria, Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport
Jasmin Schaitl 