HOW TO TAME GHOSTS

History (with a capital H) ends where the histories of those peoples once reputed to be without history come together. History is a highly functional fantasy of the West, originating at precisely that time when it alone ‘made’ the history of the world.

Edouard Glissant, The Quarrel with History – The Known, the Uncertain

To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize ‘how it really was.’ It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger… The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.

Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History

The exhibition How to tame ghosts… will feature Halida Boughriet’s series Mémoires dans l’oubli and Mudi Yahaya’s Conrad’s Circus–For Crown & Country. While the protagonists and setting in Mémoires dans l’oubli could be a citation of figures and set-ups in the works of great painters like Gustave Courbet, they do in their own right convey a story of the cameo role, but also the backbone of each society. The melancholic expressions in their faces betray that they could be the mothers, sisters, wives of fallen heroes.