Building upon Ruins – Interweaving Metaphors

Joanna Magierecka

Does the complexity of a work of art, composed of diverging narratives, present a possibility to connect to what we do not grasp? In this exposition I present interweaving as a compositional technique and dramaturgical strategy, through aspects of the creative process connected to and elements of three installations – part of a series called Ruins. The installations combine different aspects of storytelling, participatory strategies, media, and forms of expression. I believe that interweaving different and diverging fragments, allowing audience members to create their own performance dramaturgy and experience, can create an understanding of others and their experience. In that lies the possibility for a shared story – a collective story. Interweaving as a method is also present in the dramaturgy of the text itself – building up to an audio-visual representation of those elements and the written text. In this way, I hope the exposition lets the reader and me both investigate interweaving as a technique and experience it.

Walls of inscriptions

Ruins Ovartaci

Some of the best visual material I have collected through researching Ruins came from Museum Ovartaci and its former facility in Risskov. There I had the opportunity to both film and take photographs on two different occasions. The results primarily were integrated into a film, with soundscapes composed for the purpose as well as text written for the installation. In the film, the visual interweaving was not present. That is because of the limitation of resources and the accumulation of real objects I wished to incorporate into the installation. The textual interweaving was present, to a very small extent, through the following passage depicting the content of the installation:

And the theme of water and looking through it, here represented as a sink.

As well as some few words in a new context:

It is through the different elements and techniques in the installation that the interweaving of stories is much more pronounced. I worked specifically with layers of transparent pictures from the different sites. Both divergent elements, as well as the visual weight of expression, influenced how the composition would end up. Two of the collages were displayed in connection with each other, with the third hidden in the installation. On their own, the interwoven collages told the story of both my childhood and the Ovartatci museum. If an audience chose to read some of the texts from Fossekleiva, this would enhance the elements of the collages possibly relating to life around the factories.

Another part of the Ruins Ovartaci installation tells through text and visuals the story of the wall in Risskov, upon the bricks of which patients worked for days and weeks to leave carved inscriptions. The wall relates to the story of waving through walls. Additionally, I have integrated a part of the folded origami screen into this part of the installation, on top of which I have placed a transparent weaving of pictures from different and divergent sites.

And the phrase:

You are me

We…

You and I…

I held your hand

You let go of mine

You are me

We are the ruins of our childhood

You and I followed each other

We are the ruins of our future

Being frail is what being is

The dust of your mind

Gathering all the particals of you and me

`Ruins of a mind´

video

Likewise, I worked with a larger area of the installation with layers of transferred pictures from all the sites, creating a more blurry collage or compilation of the visual material.

Museum Ovartaci invited me, accepting my proposal for their collaborative art project, to contribute with an installation in their temporary residence, moving between Risskov Psychiatric Hospital and their new location at the Bunker Cultural House. Hence in 2019 I have donated the installation Ruins Ovartaci to the museum.

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