The Futureless Memory compiles contemporary artistic works and historical documents that were created in or reflecting on exile. From a global perspective, the exhibition explores the role of belonging and how the concept can be reconsidered from a contemporary point of view. Diverse cultural, political and historical backgrounds are juxtaposed to show that, although the experience of exile manifests in decidedly individual ways, the question of belonging cannot be defined only subjectively: it describes a relational co-dependency. The geographical trajectories that are taken up in the exhibited works range from Hamburg to Elgin, New York to Mexico City, Sofia to Istanbul, Istanbul to Athens, Hannover to the Lake District, Damascus to Odense and from Marburg to Istanbul.
The domain of this enquiry will aim to look beyond the mode of thinking in the form of binaries that nationalism and the current politics of othering have been nourishing from. Instead, it will focus on the mental and affectual spaces of belonging in which the artistic and intellectual works are shaped through exchange, legacy, and shared grounds of curiosity and enquiry. By means of artistic and research-based works, the exhibition aims to draw attention to the reciprocal relationships between shared fields of interest and reference, which play a particular role especially in fragile situations such as exile.
Against the backdrop of displacement, The Futureless Memory traces the paths and detours of lives, art works, texts and instruments, revealing disjunctions as much as it highlights unexpected links.
The title, The Futureless Memory, refers to the writings of Vamık D. Volkan, Turkish Cypriot psychiatrist, who is an expert in the field of peace and conflict research. He has written extensively about the psychology of dislocated and traumatized individuals.
Exhibition concept conceived by artist Dilek Winchester. Curated by Katja Schroeder.