Imagine a Memory
Ondertussen in de Kweekschool and the National Holocaust Museum
Amsterdam, December 2nd - 4th
Artists: Eva Crebolder, Barnet Kansil, Mohammad Abdulazez Azouz, Antonije Nino Zalica Organized and staged by Marta Pisco and Jelena Stefanovic; Publicity: Dyveke Rood
A gallery talk on the theme of Memory and Imagination moderated by Chris Keulemans, NHM, Amsterdam, December 4th 2016. With: Sara Tas (NHM curator), Bengin Daoud (Ondertussen), George Weiss (Radio la Benevolencija) and the participating artists.
Douglas Gordon’s work 'k.364', on display at the National Holocaust Museum, sets the scene for the artists of the Ondertussen in de Kweekschool to reflect on the subject of memory and imagination. In a brief presentation various Ondertussen artists offer a view on absence, emptiness, silence and the beauty of drama, fragility and honesty, exploring the moment when memories cross the line to become fiction.
'Short story about air' by Antonije Nino Zalica read by the author; Sound and effects: Matej Zalica,
Photos from the exibition: Nino Zalica, Marta Pisco, Nikola Solic. Video by Nino. December 2016
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A SHORT STORY ABOUT AIR:
Fire. Water. Earth. Air.
Air is the worst of all.
Fire is shells and explosions, machine-gun bursts and multiple rocket launchers.
Fire is the cigarette you don’t have, an armful of branches to boil a handful of rice.
When absent fire is cold.
Fire is horrible, but air is worse.
Water is torment, hauling it through streets of fire.
Water is also blood on the street.
Water is horrible when it is thirst, but air is the most horrible of all.
Earth is the dirt of the clay football field where we bury the dead,
earth are the buildings smashed by explosions,
earth are sandbags in the windows, mud in the hair, ditches and trenches.
Frozen earth is horrible, but air is even worse:
Air is what remains above the stump in a park of cut-down trees.
Air is the phantom pain in an arm torn off by a shell.
Antonije Nino Zalica, Sarajevo, October 1993
