Memories and Voices

overview

Join us for an evening of film and Karaoke to celebrate the closing of Pilot Micro Multiplex│Mall.

A screening of Jun Yang’s trilogy of films A short story on forgetting and remembering (2007), Norwegian Woods (2008), and Seoul Fiction (2010) will be followed by a Karaoke session that will invite guests to sing popular songs in Arabic, Urdu, English and Tagalog, among other languages. Organised as part of the programming for Jun Yang’s a proposal for a public space – a cinema, this evening is an invitation for people to gather, talk, sing, and reflect on how individual and collective histories are constructed through shared memories and experiences.

6:00 -7:00 pm Screening of films by Jun Yang - A short story on forgetting and remembering (2007), Norwegian Woods (2008), and Seoul Fiction (2010)

From 7:30 pm Karaoke evening with popular songs in a variety of languages.

Made between 2007 and 2010, Jun Yang’s trilogy of films - A short story on forgetting and remembering, Norwegian Woods, and Seoul Fiction - addresses notions of memory, time and history. A short story on forgetting and remembering explores the construction of memory - personal memory but also the memory of a nation as it writes and re-writes its history. Norwegian Woods follows a woman returning to her childhood home to pack up her mother’s belongings. It presents the act of reconfiguring and writing history as an endless undertaking without a single, definitive conclusion. Seoul Fiction accompanies an old couple on a journey by bus from the countryside to Seoul, moving from an agricultural landscape to endless near-identical housing developments. This ‘journey in time’ offers a reflection on how Korea negotiates its past and future.

A proposal for a public space – a cinema is an installation of tiled structures, which respectively frame a projection screen and function as table surfaces and seating. This structure has the potential, as implied by the artwork’s title, to be used as a public space and a cinema. Through its form and function this project suggests cities as mediated environments, inviting the public to use and negotiate a relationship with the space against the backdrop of Bait Al Shamsi’s heritage status and historical surroundings.

A short-story on forgetting and remembering, 2007
20 minutes
English with Chinese subtitles
Super16mm film on HD

A short story on forgetting and remembering explores the construction of memory—personal memory but also the memory of a nation as it writes and re-writes its history, blurring the line between reality and fiction. The 'artificiality' of constructing a memory is emphasised by filming only at night in Taiwan. This defines the city and the memories it evokes through artificial light sources, neon advertising and streetlights. The film follows its protagonist walking around the city, across rooftops—watching, observing, and witnessing the city and its nightscape, while a voice narrates a tale about ‘implanted memories’. Filmed with Super16mm in Taipei in 2007, this story marks the beginning of Yang’s trilogy.

Norwegian Woods, 2008
18 minutes
Norwegian with English subtitles
Super16mm film on HD

Norwegian Woods presents the act of reconfiguring and writing history as an endless undertaking without a single, definitive conclusion. It follows a young woman who has returned to her childhood home to sort out her mother’s affairs. As she packs up her mother’s belongings, the protagonist meditates over what remains of a person after death. She wonders who or what decides what traces of a life may linger and what must disappear. Despite leaving her mother’s possessions behind, she continues to encounter reminders of her and the past back in the city.

Seoul Fiction, 2010
15 minutes
Korean with English subtitles
Super16mm film on HD

Seoul Fiction accompanies an old couple on a bus journey from the countryside to the big city where their children live. They pass endless new developments as they move towards the South Korean capital, Seoul. Staring out the bus window, the couple observes and comments on these passing, near-identical buildings which represent the rise and transformation of the country in recent years. This ‘journey in time’ offers a reflection on how South Korea engages with its past and future. Co-produced with Samuso, this is the final part of Yang’s trilogy on memory.