A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea)

A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea) is a thematic group exhibition that explores the role that memory plays in the construction of a person’s sense of self, and how identity, like remembrance, is something that is shaped by experience, history, knowledge of our bodies, and other factors and contingencies. 

Artists: Stephanie Comilang, Binta Diaw, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi, Helene Nymann, Tai Shani, Libita Sibungu, Simon Speiser, and Yngvild Sæter

Eschewing supernatural notions of a fixed and eternal soul, A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea) takes inspiration from a psychological “turn” away from metaphysics and religion, and towards the idea that recalling who we were helps to shape and inform who we are, and what we shall become. 

Through the work of nine international artists, A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea) traces the various ways and means through which recollection is not only tied to cognition, but how the plastic, malleable, and mutable nature of memory affects our ties to ourselves and other individuals, both human and non-human. This change in the perception of the self—from something cosmic, intangible, and set, to something more social, embodied, and fluid—opens unique ways of thinking about our shared existence in specific, and memory formation in general. For example, how do the inherited stories and life experiences of our forefathers, foremothers, and other forebears inform not only how we think about ourselves, but how we feel as well? Furthermore, how do our learned senses—of taste, and touch, but also of pain and thirst, for example –read the world, and how do these processes and organs construct people’s worldviews and specific emotions at the same time?

Delving into the associations between memory and identity in relation to technology, diasporic legacies, and neuroplasticity, A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea) urges the audience to reflect upon the question of who or what speaks with, and through you, when you communicate in shared gestures. 

The exhibition is curated by Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen, with Kaja Grefslie Waagen as Producer and Assistant Curator.

Thanks to Adam Kleinman; Stefanie Hessler; Islamiya Evans, Natalie Wong (ChertLüdde, Berlin); Sarah Stengel, Nghĩa Lê (James Cohan, New York); Thy Nguyễn; Josh Woolford, Mika Lapid (Tai Shani Studio); Marianne Zamecznik, Per Christian Jørstad (Trondheim Art Museum); HAVET; Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art; Solveig Lønmo (Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimusuem); Xenia Benivolski; Eleni Zachariou (Gasworks); Sabel Gavaldon; Martin Kulhawczuk (Trondheim Science Center).

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway, Italian Culture Institute/Istituto Italiano di Cultura and Berliner Festspiele.

Kunsthall Trondheim is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, Trondheim kommune, and Trøndelag fylkeskommune.