Heliographies of Memory 2017

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

Heliographies of Memory â– 2

STRUCK THROUGH MONUMENTS

Struck through monuments ■ 3

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,

Previous page: ON SALE,NECROPOLITICS II,

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

Heliographies of Memory ■ 4

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

Next Page:

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

Struck through monuments â– 5

Heliographies of Memory ■ 6

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

Struck through monuments ■ 7

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

Heliographies of Memory â– 8

FRANCE Helios

Le M essage Secret

CAPITALISM AS A RELIGION, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2016. Bordeaux, France

Struck through monuments â– 9

Heliographies of Memory â– 10

Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.

Struck through monuments ■ 11

‘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

Heliographies of Memory ■ 12

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

Struck through monuments â– 13

Heliographies of Memory â– 14

Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.

Struck through monuments â– 15

Heliographies of Memory ■ 16

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

Struck through monuments â– 17

Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.

Heliographies of Memory â– 18

Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.

Struck through monuments â– 19

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

Heliographies of Memory â– 20

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

Struck through monuments â– 21

Heliographies of Memory â– 22

Bus soluptur, sequunt dignatem res soluptium aditiis aut molor asperit eicium que aut is sant et quaeperumet omnime.

Struck through monuments ■ 23

MEXICO Helios

La escritura invisible

ON SALE, NECROPOLITICS, Heliographies of Memory Series, 2015. Salamanca, México

Heliographies of Memory ■ 24

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

Struck through monuments â– 25

Heliographies of Memory â– 26

Struck through monuments â– 27

Heliographies of Memory â– 28

Struck through monuments ■ 29

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/