Memoryloops
Further Information
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Memory Loops – make your own personal compilation
The website memoryloops.net forms the central element of the artwork on which all audio tracks can be found on a map drawn by the artist.
Five of the German and one of the English audio tracks are one-hour Memory Loops that cover the whole city area with a focus on different subjects. The Loop in English can be found and downloaded here.
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Memory Loops throughout the city of Munich
MP3 players with all one-hour Memory Loops audio tracks are available for hire in selected museums and institutions in Munich: Münchner Stadtmuseum, Jewish Museum Munich, Villa Stuck, Lenbachhaus museum shop in the Ruffini building, Haus der Kunst.
In addition, signs around the city with URLs and telephone numbers at principal locations throughout Munich provide direct-dial access to the 61 audio tracks associated with a particular location at local rates. Should no internet link be available, individual audio tracks can still be called up on site at any time by phoning specific numbers.
These 61 audio tracks are also available as an Memory Loops iPhone App, which contains additional information such as a city map with location markers. Direct navigation to significant sites is possible by activating the phone's GPS function. -
The competition
With her work Memory Loops, Michaela Melián has been awarded first prize in the art competition ‘Victims of National Socialism: New Forms of Remembering and Remembrance’ held by the Bavarian State Capital of Munich. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation / Radio Play and Media Art Dept.
From the jury’s explanation
“Ms. Melián’s work deals in an artistically sophisticated way with the fates of all the victims of National Socialism. At the same time, the perpetrators have not been excluded either. The most varied historical dimensions are analysed focussing on certain ‘crystallisation points’ in the City of Munich. Using archival material and contemporary witness statements, Melián artistically shapes voice-collages of the highest quality. Research and realisation entail broad institutional networking that already involves the integration of younger generations.
The artwork is decentralised and at the same time refers to historically important sites. By means of Memory Loops (voice-collages) on mobile phones and other sound storage media, Melián creates an all-pervasive form of remembering and remembrance. Melián’s concept of the decentral, the personal, the immaterial and the temporary, together with a high degree of audience participation, opens up avenues for knowledge and experience, underpinned by humanism and democracy, that avoid the interpretative presumption of specialist opinion. Cautiously but insistently, Melián’s project articulates an appeal to humanness and democracy in the face of the atrocities of National Socialism.”
Jury members
Prof. Liz Bachhuber, Bauhaus Weimar
Chris Dercon, Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich
Dr. Cornelia Gockel, Art critic, Munich
Prof. Dr. Raphael Gross, Director, Leo Baeck Institute, London,
Jewish Museum and Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Hemken, Kunsthochschule Kassel
Dr. Angelika Nollert, Director, Neues Museum, Nuremberg -
Michaela Melián
Michaela Melián, an artist and musician, lives in Munich and Hamburg. She is a professor for time-based media at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK), Hamburg. She is a member of the band F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle).
In 2008 Michaela Melián was the winner of the competition ‘Opfer des Nationalsozialismus – Neue Formen des Erinnerns und Gedenkens’ (‘Victims of National Socialism – New Forms of Remembering and Remembrance’), initiated by the City of Munich, with her concept Memory Loops.
Selection of exhibitions
Home Less Home, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem (2010); See this Sound, Lentos Museum Linz (2010); Ludlow 38, New York (2009); The Dwelling, ACCA Melbourne, Australia (2009); Speicher, Ulmer Museum (2008); Speicher, Cubitt Gallery, London (2008); Recollecting, MAK Vienna (2008); Vertrautes Terrain, ZKM Karlsruhe (2007); TALK/SHOW, k.m@tranzit dielne, Bratislava (2007); Föhrenwald, KW Kunstwerke Berlin (2006)Radio plays
Speicher (BR in cooperation with the Munich Kammerspiele 2008), Föhrenwald (BR/kunstraum münchen 2005), Konvent (with Thomas Meinecke and David Moufang, BR / ZKM / intermedium 2, 2002)2011 Radio Play of the Year presented by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste for Memory Loops
2010 The City of Munich Art Prize
2009 Radio Play of the Year presented by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste for Speicher
2006 ‘Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden’ award / Radio art prize for Föhrenwald
2005 ARD Radio Play Prize and ARD-Online Award for Föhrenwald“Her work and her use of both real and metaphorical space is spare yet encompassing, assured and quite moving.” Roberta Smith, New York Times
“German artist Michaela Melián has explored the politics of memory for many years now. Her works become blueprints for an approach to history in which the alacrity of deconstructive criticism is intimately tied to an appreciation of people whose life and work made a difference.” Jan Verwoert, Frieze Magazine, London
“Michaela Melián’s artistic appropriation of history is reminiscent of Benjamin’s historico-philosophical concept concerning the dialectic image, in which past and present come together in one constellation, immediately shedding light on their relationship.” Petra Löffler, Springerin contemporary art magazine, Vienna
