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Future Memory Pavilion, Singapore, 2011 by PERNILLA & ASIF
Despite modernism’s ambivalence to it, an obsession with memory ran through the last century and has continued into this one. This series of RA Forum events, held in 2011, addressed the character, uses and implications of memory for visual culture today. Read more
In partnership with the British Council and the Preservation of Monuments Board, Singapore, a temporary pavilion was commissioned from PERNILLA & ASIF, as part of Singapore's annual architecture festival in October 2011. Read more
Monuments and Forgetting
Monday 21 February
Architectural historian Christine Stevenson, architect Ian Ritchie RA and performance artist Rod Dickinson explore the function of monuments, both historically and in contemporary society, and considered the ways they control – and deflect – types of memory. Chaired by Ines Weizman. Read more
Preservation / Destruction: OMA – CRONOCAOS
Monday 28 March
In their 2010 Venice Biennale installation, Cronocaos, Rem Koolhaas’ OMA addressed preservation and its consequences for how and what we remember. Ippolito Pestellini and James Westcott of OMA discussed the implications of preservation, exploring ‘what the future of our memory will look like’, with Simon Thurley, Jane and Louise Wilson and Christopher Woodward. Read more
Spaces of Memory
Saturday 21 May
Memory continually mediates how we perceive space. It allows us both to navigate the familiar and to recall long-buried experiences. During this afternoon of discussion, we explored how artists and architects have sought to exploit these processes, and speculated on the implications of new scientific and cultural understandings of memory and space. Read more
Mythologies of Re-enactment
Wednesday 5 October
The process of re-enactment – the act of restaging a performance or recreating an object – is central to how the past can be interpreted. Re-enactments transmit memory, yet also inevitably lead to its alteration with the creation and propagation of mythologies. This event examines the implications and possibilities of re-enactment on memory. Read more
The Future Memory Pavilion
Monday 21 November
In partnership with the British Council, UK designers, Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt are being commissioned to create a pavilion made of ice and sand to provoke discussion and awareness of issues of land and climate which are intrinsically linked to Singapore’s heritage. A panel of respondents critique and discuss the pavilion. Read more
