I struggle in trying to rebuild, starting from my soul.

Getting rid of what's not necessary: what has been attributed to me by the context, but is not mine. Since I left, twelve years ago, I am employing a dynamic of removal through memory. I remember to remove. Often with big tremors triggering gigantic collapses. Only the noise of a building taken down, makes me aware of the effect that this operation has on my identity, and that of my child, of my country of origin. [...] Such is the pain and so deep, you cannot even explain. When I start using words the misunderstanding is inevitable, due to a lack of common language and ground. The content and the modalities, the what and the how. Nothing is left but a scream, full and loud, loud, very loud (01-07).

Elena Cologni is a performance and media artist, Research Fellow at York St John University, with a PhD from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (UK). An Arts and Humanities Research Council grant supported her project 'Present Memory and Liveness in delivery and reception of video documentation during performance art events'. Awarded the Creative Lab Residency at Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, the produced work still develops focusing on presentness of the past in the lived environment. Supporting institutions: neon>campobase and Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna; GAMeC Museum, Bergamo; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Oslo Kunstforening, Norway; Garanti Platform and Karsi Sanat, Istanbul; Brown University, RI; Artists Space, New York, USA; Watershed Media Centre, Bristol; Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery, Gallery 291, Whitechapel Art Gallery, ICA, London.

www.elenacologni.com
www.elenacologni.com/memory
www.elenacologni.com/experiential