Alternatives to Memory
CR 9. Year 1969
The way this kind of work connects historical events to personal experience and deeds not only reflects the responsibility each individual bears for and in his or her time but also underlines the distinction that Gerz's work always makes between memories and collective memory. Remembering is a reactivation of life that has been lived, whereas history is always a construction of the past.... As early as 1969, Gerz's Alternatives to Memory linked these two aspects - memory and memories - and "brought people together", as the exhibition catalogue said. The spaces between the two, the interstice, is open to the participating authors, and by connecting their voices, by linking the singular and the plural, it is possible to shift meanings.
Marion Hohfeldt 2015
Categories
Keywords
Work in public space
Rope (l = 300 cm), 2 pairs of gloves, 2 b/w photographs, each 24 x 18 cm, 2 wooden stands
A rope on the floor of an exhibition space at the Kunsthalle Basel leads out to the street in front of the building. A pair of gloves is attached to each end of the rope. A photograph at each end shows the other end of the rope.
Exhibitions
Basel 1969. Norwich 2008
Bibliography
I: Basel 1969 Bd. 2, pp. 38-39. Roma 1973, pp. 1-6. Karlsruhe 1975a, pp. 112-115. Paris 1975a, p. 51. Bolzano 1999, p. 102. Norwich 2008, pp. 110-111
II: Red. 15, 1970, p. 21. Red. 23, 1970, p. 26. Beke 1972, p. 25
III: Groh 1971
V: Sarenco 1970. Kostelanetz 1973, p. 264
VI: Ovum 10, 1970, p. 11. Questioni d’Arte 1970, p. 8. Uomini e Idee 1970, pp. 112-113.