The first launch of my book Here, Not. took place in London's Broadway Market at Lot Projects on August 18th 2024.
For the evening, the multimedia work of artist Francesca Bogani Amadori transforms the gallery in an echo room populated with the sounds and colours of Helsinki’s suburban shores and the streets of Lima, Perú.
Bogani Amadori's video performance "Making- here: Embodied Memory" explores the influence of movement on specific locations. It delves into how certain behaviors are manifested regardless of one's placement, replicating how different environmental conventions have affected and shaped one's ways of being in place. The work features a (dis)situated walking performance in a landfill, where actions do not correspond to the surroundings. This performance reveals how gestures, rhythms, and patterns embedded in the body can permeate the location and transform the sense of place. Sound is used as a medium to trace and present the intensities and intentions of the walk by incorporating field recordings from both Helsinki– here- and Lima –there– to layer different sonic cues of places that have affected and still resonate and move the body within place.
The book launch and the exhibition were hosted by Nastia Svarevska as part of her project In Between Knots.
Here, Not. is an edited publication that explores belonging, identity and access in the urban spaces of Helsinki through the practices of fourteen arts and cultural workers based in Finland. Read more about the book here.
Photos of the event by Emma Curatolo.
