memory

After a hard week and an exhausting Sunday (serving Glögg and Pepperkakor at the shop), we joined the International Memoir Society's first meeting yesterday evening. This society is presided by Susan McCabe, professor at the department of literature at the University of Southern California. The idea behind this Society - as far as I could get it - is to give artists from all over the world the opportunity to exchange, collect ideas and present their work, that should - of course - be linked to this rather ample notion of memory.

Susan was not there but I would really have liked to hear her opinion and have her lead the discussion. I read some of her poems - she's striking.

However, I had expected and at the same time feared the talk that came up. I'll seize the opportunities this platform gives me with both hands, but I have to find a way to go round this cliché-"art"-talk.

First, there were of course the unavoidable art comments, that "everybody is free to express everything with anything". Hum. I'd humbly like to state that I have quite a bit of a knowledge about this topic and that I don't have any problem with highly subjective art, BUT ... not any creative expression is suitable to be presented as art in public, however important to its creator.

Secondly, there was of course a long discussion about how our society is forgetting traditions; and about all these old people just waiting to die with no-one coming to collect all their knowledge. So, should this Society only collect the memories of our grand-parents? Are young people's memories not worth being dealt with?

It's an illusion to believe that there is something as "tradition". To be alive, a tradition needs to be constantly re-invented.

In early 19th-century Sweden, for instance, intellectuals bemoaned the loss of traditions and pilgrimaged to Dalarna, a part of Sweden considered as especially "Swedish".
There, they asked old people [!] to play them the oldest songs they knew, dance the oldest dances they knew and tell the oldest stories; completely disregarding the interesting new musical and cultural developments happening right in front of their eyes...

Now, of course, the work I would like to present in summer is again very subjective, but I'll try to avoid the slipperly "personal art" road and engage into something that I imagine to be useful and worth delving in for other people than myself.

Still; the starting point is very personal: trees. I've been "working" on this topic since early January, reading scientific and non-scientific books, visiting trees, taking pictures and collecting memories in a wider sense. And from the first moment on I remember falling in a kind of dreamy state whenever I spend some time under a tree; floating in images, sounds and scents.
One doesn't have to get metaphysical to aknowledge that trees gather under their bark memories older than the average human being. Most people don't realise how much influence the surrounding nature has on their own thoughts, actions and lifestyles...

All the pictures of this post (with the exception of the one above) have been taken at a hidden place near the river in the heart of Graz, where a wise willow has taught me many lessons in patience, truthfulness and protection during this spring and summer.

The sound of the river, sand on my skin and sun in my eyes - sublime memories!