This we must remember - Sam Jury and Rob Godman
This we must remember
This You Must Remember is a multi-media exhibition featuring a major new film installation by British filmmaker Sam Jury with composer Rob Godman and poetic works by Abkhazia-based Anton Ochirov, co-produced with SKLAD Cultural Space and Asida Butba.
This You Must Remember explores notions of suspended trauma and the slow violence of prolonged aftermath in post conflict Abkhazia, a de facto state in stasis since the Georgian-Abkhaz war (92/3). The external image of Abkhazia is most often reflected through the ruins and detritus of war that scar its cities and landscape. The film creates a counter narrative, drawing from the personal recollections of those who remain, who knew those ruins as homes and schools, as places of work and enjoyed places of leisure. What emerges is an alternative form of documentary exploring notions of fragmented memory and psychological truth – a close-looking narrative that unfurls the traumatic process of ruination and the notion that any society’s stability is an enduring condition.
Ochirov‘s text takes the form of book pages, made object-like atop of lightbox plinths. Written as both standalone texts and poetic responses to Jury‘s filmed observations, Ochirov‘s work also observes the everyday, drawn from ordinary conversations of modern Abkhazia. In this orchestration, the visuals and poems hold no prescribed reading, but coincide at points unique to each viewer’s perspective and moment of encounter.
Our global space is riddled with hidden conflict zones – zones of traumatic experience. As asynchronous waves of information flow through mass media and digital channels, and collide with our lived experiences of the physical world, an uncertain and fragmented reality is created. In This You Must Remember, both Anton Ochirov and Sam Jury draw from these conflicting states, evoking universal emotions to form the basis of their work.
This You Must Remember is being shown in Depo, Istanbul and KCB, Belgrade from November 2022 into 2023.
Sam says:
This You Must Remember is a closer-looking exploration of the slow violence of prolonged conflict aftermath. In 2023, Abkhazia will have been in frozen conflict for 30 years. The detritus of war continues to litter this once opulent Black Sea resort, the 1999/3 conflict with Georgia ever present in people’s minds. In This You Must Remember is a multi-channel installation, with poetry works by Abkhazia based Anton Ochirov.
In the main installation, it is the forensic small details that precede trauma that come to the fore. Like memory itself, each chapter of the film draws from the complex orchestrations between image, text voice and sound to create continuously renewing dialogues. Godman's immersive sound, through use of innovative spatial techniques, will create a believable sense of place coexistent with the exaggerated spaces of trauma. Combined, this multiplicity will reflect the fragmentary nature of memory and the contradictory perception of sound in moments of heightened awareness. Although episodic,This You Must Remember is also cyclical, continuously slipping between past and present, facilitating multiple options for siting, contingent on location, but not dependent on durational screenings. For instance, installing one chapter per room, whereby the encountering of each episode is dependent on the route and determination of the viewer.
Rob says:
As well as being a linear film, we are presenting TYMR as multi-channel installations in Depo, Istanbul and KCB, Belgrade. Working in galleries is a challenge for sound works and I have created custom mixes for each space. The source material for the audio is taken off-camera and from field recordings, combined with heavily processed ‘folky’ violin sounds. The music and other sound is fused together, creating a form of hybridised sound design.
Screenings:
08/11/2022- 07/01/2023
Depo Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12
Tophane 34425 İstanbul, Turkey
09/12/2022 - 14/02/2023
Kulturni Centar Beograda (KCB)
Republic Square 5;
11000 Belgrade, Serbia
