ART CITIES:Beijing-Memory Burns

The opening exhibition of the OCAT Institute in Beijing, is entitled “Memory Burns”. Responding to poignant questions that have occupied his thinking over the years, the exhibition is part of Georges Didi-Huberman’s ongoing investigation into the dynamics between image and time.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: OCAT Institute Archive

As Georges Didi-Huberman said “This exhibition seeks to evoke a fundamental philosophical problem touching on the relationship between the image and time…” The exhibition is a collaboration between the Festival Croisements 2015 and the Institute, and features 11 works from the artists: Aby Warburg, Harun Farocki, Pascal Convert and Arno Gisinger. Among the other artworks is projected a formally stringent critique of the Vietnam War, “Inextinguishable Fire”, in this film Hrun Farocki critiques the role of consumer industry in the production of chemical weapons during the Vietnam War, in particular, the work of Dow Chemicals. Near the start of the film, Farocki poses a question that seems to get at the heart of many people’s anxieties about violence and the media: “How can we show you napalm in action? And how can we show you the injuries caused by napalm? If we show you pictures of napalm burns, you’ll close your eyes. First you’ll close your eyes to the pictures. Then you’ll close your eyes to the memory. Then you’ll close your eyes to the facts. Then you’ll close your eyes to the context. If we show you someone with napalm burns, we will hurt your feelings. If we hurt your feelings, you will feel like we’d tried napalm on you. We can give you only a hint of how napalm works”. And then Farocki takes a lit cigarette and snuffs it out on his own arm. “A cigarette burns at 400 degrees”, a narrator says. “Napalm burns at 3,000 degrees”.

Info: Memory Burns, Curating: Georges Didi-Huberman, OCAT Institute, Jinchanxilu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Duration: 28/6-11/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, www.ocatinstitute.org.cn