Stories by Grand Dad

2018, mixed media installation (video, slide projection)

Human identity is not stable and is in a dynamic relationship with the world around us. In the contemporary world, the way you identify yourself subjectively is in contradiction to how the “standard systems” would identify you objectively. In the system of law, documents are a standardized way to identify an objective truth. Thus, what seems interesting is this connection and simultaneously contradiction between documents, personal life and identity. However, the artist is trying to question documents abilities to identify people subjectively, while she is underscoring their values and aura for keeping someone’s memory alive.

The Vassel family, originally from France which then moved to Germany in the 1880s and later on immigrated to Brazil, India and the United States, is the family who has been emphasized in the research. The stucture of the work is based on found footage of Bruno Vassel is explaining a series of detailed stories and memories of the family to his grandchildren.

In this project, she is using documents from a unknown person and his family that she does not have any connection. Also, she has given emphasis to documenting everyday life and stories, capturing moments and keeping alive ancestry memories. In other words, it aims at proceeding with a subjective view of documentation. To do this, she tries to find out more about someone’s life story and memories by getting to know them through their family history and documents.

This project consists of a series of found footage documents presented as a video and slide projection.