CONTENTS<\/p>\n
Prologue by David Neuman<\/strong>, Director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall Exhibition catalogue no. 39 Language:<\/strong> Swedish and English During the exhibition Les<\/em> archives<\/em> (2008), visitors could record their heartbeat on a CD. The CD was included in the purchase of the catalog, together with a certificate stating that the recorded heartbeat belonged to the buyer.<\/p>\n For every catalog or CD sold, Magasin 3 donated a part of the sales to the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation\u2019s research on heart, lung, and vascular diseases. During the exhibition, it was also possible to only purchase the CD.<\/p>\n\n\n EXCERPT<\/p>\n Essay by Tessa Praun<\/p>\n If one were to try to reduce all artistic and human production throughout time to just one simple driving force it would probably be a striving for immortality. The knowledge of our death lies inherently within the nature of birth; no life is eternal or everlasting. However, since life is our greatest gift we do everything possible to try to immortalize ourselves. Throughout history religions as well as philosophers, writers and other intellectuals have been fascinated by the question of how the physical body and the soul can attain immortality. Already in the Epic of Gilgamesh<\/em> (ca. 2000-1000 BC), which is regarded as one of the world\u2019s first literary works, we find a searching for eternal life. Christianity maintains that Adam and Eve lost their \u2013 and all of humanity\u2019s \u2013 physical immortality as a consequence of the original sin. This human weakness which brought about the Fall paves the way for Christianity \u2013 as well as Islam \u2013 to promise eternal life after death to true believers. \u201cOur hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.\u201d Robert Green Ingersoll (American statesman, 1833-1899)<\/p>\n In the time of the pharaohs the Egyptians mummified their dead in the hope that this would enable them to live on in their physical form in the afterlife. Immortality is also a major part of the Rastafarian religion \u2013 they are convinced that at the end of life on earth they will be called to the biblical Mount Zion where they will live on freely. Certain Taoists believe that the repeated recitation of certain texts can be rewarded with eternal life while others practice internal alchemy to prolong life and to, in theory, attain immortality. In the secularized Western world people try to prolong their lifespan or even to turn back the clock through methods like extreme diets, exercise routines and surgical or even genetic procedures.<\/p>\n In spite of this, science has proven again and again that for the human body as for all biological forms of life, death is the inescapable end and a part of evolution. The only possibility of \u2018eternal life\u2019 in the biological sense is reproduction where genes are transferred from one generation to another. A concrete example of this is the case of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who saved 1,200 Jews from deportation in Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In the epilogue to Steven Spielberg\u2019s film Schindler\u2019s List<\/em> from 1994 we see contemporary documentary footage of some of Schindler\u2019s Jews visiting his grave. The subtitles explain that those saved by him have more than 6,000 descendants. Now, 14 years after the making of the film, it must be considerably more. In the future there will be an infinite number of people who exist only because of Schindler\u2019s bravery. One would gladly stop one\u2019s thoughts here but one is at the same time unavoidably reminded of the potential descendants of the 6 million who were murdered. A loss too great to capture in words.<\/p>\n Another interpretation of immortality is the notion that we exist as long as we are remembered, spoken or written about. As opposed to all the power mongers who through war, murder and devastation have inscribed their names into the history books, artists have found a much more positive and subtle way of immortalizing themselves. If the artist creates work that touches people during his lifetime these pieces are kept and archived for future generations.<\/p>\n \u201cI am interested in what I call \u2018little memory\u2019, an emotional memory, an everyday knowledge, the contrary of the Memory with a capital M that is preserved in history books. This little memory, which for me is what makes us unique, is extremely fragile, and it disappears with death. This loss of identity, this equalization in forgetting, is very difficult to accept.\u201d Christian Boltanski (from \u201cThe Big Storehouse\u201d, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art <\/em>21:1, 1999, p. 58-62)<\/p>\n In his work since the 1960s Christian Boltanski has employed the archive as his main artistic form, taking on the task of not only immortalizing himself but even his fellow human beings. The material he uses is everyday objects and personal belongings to remember ordinary people by. The works often resemble depots of found objects and are infused with a sense of loss. However, here it is not the objects themselves that have been lost but their owners who are missing.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone\u2019s photograph, garment or dead body are pretty much the same thing: there was someone there, now they\u2019re gone.\u201d Christian Boltanski (From Centre Pompidou\u2019s Internet archive for education (Education\/Media Support).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":100672,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"98778,77084,77102,77089,98799,98783","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-20626","m3_publication","type-m3_publication","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Essay by Tessa Praun<\/strong>, Curator Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/strong>No. of pages:<\/strong> 64, black-and-white, illustrated
Binding:<\/strong> soft cover, CD included
Graphic design:<\/strong> Sandra Praun, Designstudio S
Editor:<\/strong> Tessa Praun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Year:<\/strong> 2008
Publisher:<\/strong> Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
ISBN: <\/strong>978-91-976646-3-9<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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