- Artists
The Inivators and artist Tania El Khoury present an exhibition and archive of the recent student protests looking at the collective documenting of an event as curated by Teresa Cisneros and Jess Harrington. It provokes questions about memory and the fragile nature of recording history and what we can trust.
Some items in the exhibition are found, donated and others created eg., garments worn at protests, protest survival guide, fire extinguisher thrown off a roof at Millbank, ‘Defend the right to protest’ flyer and a newspaper cutting with the headline ‘student snatched’.
“Shortly after the first of the student protests here in London, at Millbank, we realised that something had happened, something that had precipitated events that we found ourselves unsure of. Since this time, we have established ourselves as archivists and investigators of the realm of possible damage to come. The precarious nature of the objects and documents that have found their way into our hands have dubious and sometimes speculative origins.
The archive is brought together from found, donated and created objects each lending its weight towards preserving a fragile memory of a particular event. The organising and indexing of the archive allow a speculative attitude towards the present and recent past. By refusing to adhere themselves to a set of truths, the material instead provokes a question of what is, in fact, believable, revealing the delicate bonds of social narrative and trust in a collective idea of history.
Part of our archive is dedicated to those who we call ‘the disappeared’. We still don’t know where these people are or how they disappeared, although of course, we all have our suspicions. We know little of their identities but we do know that their actions, as anonymous beings, have influenced us all.”
The Inivators
(Alexandra, Ella, Gita, Hailey, Hussain, Karli, Luke, Quincey, Raziya, Ruth, Ryan, Tara, Yemisi and Yolanda)
Tania El Khoury collaborates with the Inivators to present Possible Damage, an archive of the recent student protests. The exhibition will be on display in Rivington Place’s Education Space accompanied by an interactive event on 14 April and lecture performance on 20 April. Possible Damage investigates the construction of social memory and its consequent realities. It forms a collective archive through which we can imagine a group’s shared experiences, narratives and conflicts.