HELIOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY The
S t ru c k t h ro u g h m o n u m e n t s
Sa id Dok in s in coll a bor ation w ith Leon a rdo Lun a
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STRUCK THROUGH MONUMENTS
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HELIOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY About
T
he main preoccupation in my work is
I’m interested in different levels in which
related to text and inscription as ways of
inscriptions operate as events in history and
interpretation of existence understood in
how objects, gestures, signs and representations
a wide sense and as a result of diverse cultural discourses. For me, everything that happens in our life, the personal, political and social aspects, are part of a text of different levels, I mean, each experience we have leaves a trace on us, each event that takes place in our lives is an imprint on our symbolic universe and is through each one of these experiences that those marks that we accumulate over the years generate some kind of texture, a text that we can read through our souvenirs or activate it through memory. At the end, our experiences, the things we build,
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the things that affect us, our acts, are little micro-stories in the big tale of life.
activate them. With that on mind, I’ve been working on a longterm project named ‘Heliographies of Memory’ with my colleague Leonardo Luna, during the last tree years. The project started with a series of interventions in historical sites, with great historic and symbolic value in Mexico. Now, it has extended through Europe to monuments, landmarks or abandoned places, but all of them encoded by flow and transit as a non-place. The project arose from inquiring into one of my great interests: the idea of writing as an act, graffiti as a trace, but also in the experience of
Heliographies of Memory Series,
writing itself as a creation of sense in the action
2015. Salamanca, México
moment. I’ve been wondering how to register
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that experience, that ephemeral act of graffiti
sites, public plazas, monuments, bulwarks,
and I found that long exposure photography as a
become re-signification spaces. Through light
form to register light, can help us to capture that
calligraphy, I have accomplished to symbolically
moment. I have worked with light calligraphy
separate graffiti from the wall and suspend it on
since 2007, carrying through several experiments
the space.
with multiple lighting tools, designing lamps, creating
animations,
programming
and
collaborating with various artists, designers and programmers. All that previous exploration took me to this project: ‘Heliografías de la Memoria’ (Heliographies of Memory), seeking to define what is for me the pure act of graffiti, and at the same time, exploring new ways of space appropriation. We capture the invisible, acting on air, using as locations iconic places: historic
We started working in Mexico, in cities that have had a leading role in the great turning points in our national history, as Querétaro and Guanajuato. This last one, is a state in the center of the country where the city of Salamanca is located. Salamanca is home of one of the largest refineries in Mexico, which during the 50’s used to be symbol of modernity and progress and now, because of the energy reform set by the current Government and the lack of proper maintenance has become symbol of privatization and the
I’m interested in places that have a connection with the situation after the fall of the Berlin Wall: abandoned spaces, small empty communities like Halle, but also the spaces of social reconstruction, places that have been rebuilt after the war, the Frauenkirche in Dresden is an example.
political and economical crisis Mexico is going through. (On sale/ Necropolitics. Salamanca, México, 2016) The decision whether to make a trip to Europe, is to investigate spaces that exemplify specially the palimpsest, layers of history. In Germany for example, I’m interested in places that have
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a connection with the situation after the fall of
PALIMPSESTOS II,
the Berlin Wall: abandoned spaces, small empty
Heliographies of Memory Series, 2015. Oaxaca, México
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communities like Halle, (Schlachthof, Halle,
One concern that we have as Mexicans and
Germany, 2016), but also the spaces of social
which represent one of the great conflicts in
reconstruction, places that have been rebuilt
the contemporary geopolitical context are the
after the war, the Frauenkirche (Church of Our
dispositives of inclusion/exclusion. While in
Lady) in Dresden is an example.
Germany the Wall of Berlin has been teared down since 1989, United States exclusion policies
A fundamental component of this project is the idea of displaced memories, movement and migration of memory, which is a phenomenon happening in Europe significantly, either through fluctuations of people within and outside the European community, refugees or all of those who have had to flee their land to seek better living conditions.
are looking forward to raise a great wall to divide forcefully our two nations, representing without a doubt, the American Wall of Shame. The piece ‘The doors that open, the doors that close’, captured at the Brandemburger Tor, opens a reflection on the dispositive that since the 18th century has had several functions regarding to
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the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. A fundamental component of this project is the idea of displaced memories, movement and migration of memory, which is a phenomenon happening
in
Europe
significantly,
either
through fluctuations of people within and outside the European community, refugees or all of those who have had to flee their land to seek
to read the history between the lines. The roll that objects play in the operation of memory is very important, I think that memory only can be activated through objects, we can find this view in the words of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin: “Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text”.
better living conditions. The tour we are doing in Germany is called “The Hidden Text” and is a reflection about history taking place before our eyes, often in encrypted forms and how we have
Said Dokins
Landscape Salamanca. The Ing. Antonio M. Amor Refinery in Salamanca in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico Photo: Leonardo Luna
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FRANCE Helios
Le M essage Secret
CAPITALISM AS A RELIGION, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Bordeaux, France
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Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.
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‘IN DEN GEBIETEN, MIT DENEN WIR ES ZU TUN HABEN, GIBT ES ERKENNTNIS NUR BLITZHAFT. DER TEXT IST DER LANGNACHROLLENDE DONNER’ “In the fields with which we are concerned, knowledge [Erkenntnis] comes only in lightning flashes. The text is the long roll of thunder that follows,” Walter Benjamin
Previous page: COUTEAUX ET GEMS, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France Left: CŒUR II, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France
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DIE SCHEINBAR ›BLEIBENDEN‹ WERKE ZUCKEN DURCH JEDE GEGENWART NUR BLITZHAFT. Walter Benjamin
THE HIDDEN TEXT/ EL SUEÑO DEL CHOQUE, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France Following pages: GALUS VS ROMANS, Heliographies of Memory Series, Roman amphitheatre, Le Palais Gallien, 2016. Bordeaux, France RELIGATIO, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France MAY, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France
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Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.
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DIE FUNKTION DES GEDÄCHTNISSES IST DER SCHUTZ DER EINDRÜCKE; DIE ERINNERUNG ZIELT AUF IHRE ZERSETZUNG. DAS GEDÄCHTNIS IST IM WESENTLICHEN KONSERVATIV, DIE ERINNERUNG IST DESTRUKTIV. The function of remembrance [Gedächtnis] is the protection of impressions; memory [Erinnerung] aims at their disintegration. Remembrance is essentially conservation, memory is destructive Theodor Reik
GHOSTING, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Bordeaux, France Next page: THE HIDDEN TEXT/ EL SUEÑO DEL CHOQUE II, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Paris, France
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Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.
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Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.
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GERMANY Helios
Di e v e r b org en e S c h r i f t
THE DOORS THAT OPEN, THE DOORS THAT CLOSE, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Berlin, Germany
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WIE ULTRAVIOLETTE STRAHLEN ZEIGT ERINNERUNG IM BUCH DES LEBENS JEDEM EINE SCHRIFT, DIE UNSICHTBAR, ALS PROPHETIE, DEN TEXT GLOSSIERTE Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text. Walter Benjamin
THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Dresden, Germany Next page: SCHLACHTHOF, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Halle, Germany
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Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.
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MEXICO Helios
La escritura invisible
ON SALE, NECROPOLITICS, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2015. Salamanca, México
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GESCHICHTE ZERFÄLLT IN BILDER, NICHT IN GESCHICHTEN History disintegrates into images, not stories Walter Benjamin
FANTASMAGORÍAS, Heliographies of Memory series, 2015. Guanajuato, México Following pages: CROWN, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2014. Querétaro, México PALIMPSESTOS, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2015. Oaxaca, México CROSSED ALPHABETH, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2014. Querétaro, México
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S
SAID DOKINS
LEONARDO LUNA
México, 1983
México, 1987
aid Dokins relates to calligraphy and graffiti as intermediate practices of inscription and trace, twisting symbolic orders and as
a place of political enunciation. Dokins lives and
L
eonardo Luna is a Mexican photographer who has developed his work in different areas of photography, worked in his first
years in advertising industry and later chose to
works in Mexico City. His cultural practice takes
find his own style in documentary photography,
on contemporary art production, research and
currently working on a series of personal long
cultural management. He has put on curatorial
term projects like ‘Hardest crew’, constant
projects related to urban arts and a number of
documentation of some youth movements and
political issues happening in his country. Among
their different expressions within the city of
other awards, is the winner of the Iberoamerican
Mexico and Heliographies of Memory, project
Contemporary Art Creation Prize, Cortes de
in collaboration with the Mexican artist Said
Cadiz, Juan Luis Vasallo 2015 in Cadiz, Spain. His
Dokins, this project seeks to redefine public
work as an artist has been shown nationally and
spaces with a symbolic character, through
internationally in countries as Spain, Germany,
calligraphic interventions traced with light and
Holland, Belgium, United Kingdom, France,
registered in photography..
Argentina, Chile, Brasil, El Salvador, Peru and others. It takes up the economy of medieval calligraphy, the energy and expressiveness of japanese calligraphy, besides creating a poetic based on pre-phonetic writing. For Dokins every experience is a trace, a psychic impression that creates a texture in our symbolic universe. In that sense, calligraphy and graffiti aren’t just on paper and ink, on the walls and spray, but on every event of our existence.
The
HELIOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY Struck through monuments
SOCIAL MEDIA:
CONTACT: saidokins@gmail.com +5215530482199 leodluna@me.com +525543491645
Sa id Dok in s in coll a bor ation w ith Leon a rdo Lun a
https://www.instagram.com/saidokins/ https://www.instagram.com/leodluna/