Immersive installation with scent and temperature. 2018-2022
Ludwig Museum Budapest | Soledad Senlle Art Foundation | H401 Amsterdam | EYE Filmmuseum | Amsterdam
(text below the images)
‘Once I dreamt that I walked through my old dollhouse, empty but full of atmosphere, waking up with a story, of which the words got lost’ | A post-colonial family affair by Eva Gonggrijp
Memories want to be explored and recalled from the merciless passing by and disappearing, which is the essence of time. Memories do not agree with the one-way traffic of the time of the clock. They cling to other memories; if they venture back into times past, it is to move forward. Objects play a vital part in this. When you inherit precious objects, you do not inherit just the material, but also traces of people, memories of them and of particular situations, sometimes going back generations. There is nothing more lonely than a ring slipping off a finger with its destination unknown.
Gonggrijp’s grandmother built a dollhouse for her, the Eva Hof [Eva’s court], an almost perfect replica of her own house. A great part of her hidden colonial past, her losses and dreams were echoed in the dollhouse. For Eva in turn, her grandmother’s house became a safe haven during a turbulent youth. The dollhouse now is empty, but almost inaudible stories dart out from the cracks of times past, from the space between things, from the silence in between the sounds. Who enters this space changes from subject to participating and direct object, since the memories are not yours but do need your sensory perceptions to come to life.
Text Cees de Boer | Art Historian and curator
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Gonggrijp’s work was selected both for its treatment of childhood memories as well as for its use of a technical solution that is quickly becoming futures generations’ reality. She places the almost archeological remains of a bygone era into another realm. The well-known home of a beloved family member becomes something ghost-like, something almost threatening. The work perfectly fits into the exhibition’s starting theory regarding memory work, therapeutical adaptation and the creation of different dimensions. The installation is also a perfect embodiment of a peep hole version of dioramas, where the viewer can look inside the black box containing the visual elements. ‘On entre’ can also be seen as a powerful hommage to Duchamp’s life-size diorama, “Étant donnés” built in a Paris apartment in 1946.
Zsuzska Petró, curator Ludwig Muzeum Budapest
https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/en/exhibition/smaller-worlds-diorama-contemporary-art
Digital catalogue
https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/system/files/publication/attachments/2023-01/230123_kisebbvilagok_online.pdf
In cooperation with WeMakeVR (camera stills and stitching) Amsterdam Funded by Soledad Senlle Art Foundation, Avro/Tros TV, AFK and Mondriaanfonds, Amsterdam | Scent development in cooperation with ‘the Snifferoo’ Amsterdam
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/11/20/tijdreis-naar-verloren-verdriet-a3980960
https://vondelcs.avrotros.nl/nieuw/vr-installatie-souvenir-mediacafe/