Ghost lines
Project by Cara Davies and Mads Floor Andersen
Residency at Pink, Manchester and supported by Austrian Cultural Forum London
“[t]hese spaces of surplus materialities and meanings swarm with the ghosts which have been exorcised elsewhere. A far more multiple, nebulous, and imaginative sense of memory persists in these undervalued, undercoded, mundane spaces, critiquing the discursive closure upon mnemonic meanings of other sites”
-Tim Edensor: The ghosts of industrial ruins (p 834)
During our residency at Pink we approached “hosting” as a way to give space for uncertainty and to engage and welcome the unfamiliar. Over the last 18 months the world has played host to the unknown and the extraordinary. The unprecedented nature of the pandemic has heightened many individual’s anxieties and raised concerns about security, routine, community and proximity. For some the senses have been dampened and voices silenced, for others it has been a time of charged emotions, demonstrations and advocating for change. Either way, as society begins to move again, we face a return to normality that requires us to build and explore trust but how can we do so in the knowledge of all that has happened? How do we lean into the motion of life when we don’t know where we are going, or what impact it may have on friends, family and neighbours? As we think about the ethical implications of our choices, we acknowledge our own anxieties: COVID-19, death, life, climate change, Brexit, our career, our networks, our futures. What do they hold? How can we hold space to share without feeling embarrassed or ashamed? Our residency will therefore explore how we can foster space in which we can host uncertainty and embrace the unfamiliar.
The video above is one of a collection of works we created during our residency.