“Altered Voices” is a group show which revolves around the theme of damnatio memoriae – the ultimate act of “forgetting” in relation to collective memory. The artists in this exhibition explore instances of personal and historical memory through a diverse range of media that includes installations, video, sculpture, soundscapes, photographs and performance.
Damnatio memoriae – a Latin phrase which means "condemnation of memory" – is a practice of erasing from public record the memory of a person who committed dishonor to the state. It was best known during the Roman empire and it was associated with ancient rulers who called for the erasure of their predecessors from the historical record.
Then in ancient Egypt – the female ruler with male features Queen Hatshepsut was erased from the public record and the archives and artifacts of Nubian culture which have been systematically obliterated.
Inspired by a recent trip to Egypt, this body of works offer an entry to the practice of memory oscillating between past and present, memory and oblivion. Evocative questions arise: what can we learn from those ancient practices of erasure and the ultimate act of ‘forgetting’ and how could these rather specific (hi)stories resonate in society now?; how can this act of destruction of depictions also be seen as an act of rewriting history?
In times of social and political turbulence, propaganda, social media disinformation, cancel culture, a place – a “shelter” for concentration, contemplation and (uneasy) listening is needed more than ever.
Collective experiences of remembering, defining consciousness and rituals are implied in our work as necessary tools for transgressing the passages of accumulated toxicity, both internal and external, we invite you to take a trip; revisited and shared voyage into the juxtaposition of fractured layers of history and personal inscription into the present.
