not before it has forgotten you
The publication not before it has forgotten you is designed by graphic designer Rose Nordin and inspired by Japanese theatrical pamphlets, a form of movie memorabilia that is sold during a film’s run. In Japan, films often get their own specially made programmes as part of the movie-going experience. They gather a number of production stills and behind-the-scenes information.
The stages of individual research and collective discussions (between the artists and the curators) leading to the exhibition have been strongly influenced by literature, sociology, art history but also films, from Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray (1986), Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), Brian de Palma's Obsession (1976) and Body Double (1984), to William Friedkin's Cruising (1984), David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) and Mati Diop's Atlantiques (2009). The intention is for this key yet hidden (literally, ‘behind-the-scenes’) moment of the process to be rendered visible. Artists (and curators) submitted phone screenshots, personal notes, research images, quotes, abandoned ideas, and any sort of material that has been influential in their creative process, yet would not appear in the final outcomes. It resonates with the main themes of the exhibition: what has left, what is unseen, what has carved a mark. It also opens a space of freedom, where participants do not have to focus on giving a sense of collective, final cohesion as much as when working towards the exhibition; a space for—potentially—odd things to sit.
The publication comprises a written piece by Eva Gold and a cinefoil insert by Clémentine Bruno, designed in collaboration with Anna Clegg and Beatrice Vorster. All at once a bookmark, a remain of the cinefoil poster work they presented in the exhibition, and an unexpected addition to a publication already consisting in unexpected content—this object continues to remind us that something always escapes our knowledge, understanding, or sense of mastery.
