Esmée

Bruins

Esmée Bruins


Category
PR-TW-2023
Repeatedly elongating the breath of a memory 
2023
Commission
Sound & Vision Institute

The room is cold, we are underground. The more underground we are, the colder it gets. Every hallway has another color, I have seen orange and yellow, but upstairs the color is purple. It seems like the cold colours are in the warm areas and the other way around.

I suppose I expected the room to smell like paper, but it didn’t. For now, I have only seen radios, video cameras, television show memorabilia, and carefully placed gloves for touching the objects.

How would I describe this place without mentioning it as an archive? When is something considered an archive, and what steps does this involve? What do I need to take on to archive a piece of, maybe art?

When collecting videos for my sample pack, I was fascinated by the broad collection of videos, images, and objects. All once archived after serving an important purpose, one to inform, to educate, to record, to wonder, or to experiment.

Looking at fragments of film that take us back in time, displaying a sense of nostalgia or maybe even melancholia. What does it mean to hold something, that is not able to be held? To chew on something, but not swallow, nor spit it out. What kind of taste is left behind? 

Part of work commissioned by Sound & Vision Institute