Mnemonic City: Lisbon | Mnemonic City

Coming up in September 2015

This coming September the City of Lisbon and art collective Roundabout.LX will host artists from London’s Magma Collective for another Mnemonic City exhibition. For a month both collectives will collaborate through an artistic exploration and investigation of the city of light, Lisbon, looking for visible, invisible and virtual memories. This artistic exploration will happen across a wide variety of media and will result in an exhibition and various interventions in the city.

Implanting memories through walks in the city

Images, social networks, memories…implanted. Mnemonic City: Lisbon was initiated on the 23^rd October 2014 by way of an experimental walk taking place simultaneously in London and Lisbon. Through social media, the two collectives instructed each other where to go in their respective cities, which meant that both groups were wondering through the streets of their own city without knowing where they would go next. Along the walks, photographs were taken and shared in real time via social media. Below is the resulting route through Lisbon and some of the key locations.

The route of the walk through Lisbon

Location 1: go left!

Location 2: go up!

Location 3: go straight!

Location 4: go back!

Location 7: go straight!

Location 8: go straight!

Location 26: go right!

A second walk took place on the 25^th of November 2014 in Lisbon. Here, a route through the city was created by connecting key locations chosen by the members of Roundabout.LX. During the walk, as each location was reached, a story about a memory related to that specific location was told by the different people of the group. Below is a selection with photographs taken along the route, and a map with the key locations.

The route of the walk through Lisbon with key locations

Around Pat’s location – Rossio Square

‘The joke is on you pigs’ – Pat’s memory on Rossio Square

‘In that time I was open to speak to everyone’ – Edgar’s memory on Rua Augusta

starting to walk again….

…towards the next location

‘Childhood souvenir’ Marta’s memory on Rua Ribeira Nova

around Cais do Sodre

‘Spaghetti conversation’ – Max’s memory on Cais do Sodre

Through these walks Roundabout.LX and Magma Collective have started a collection of memories that will inform and inspire the project itself in September, when they will be discovering and exploring Lisbon together, thereby creating visible and invisible memories. This experimental approach found its culmination so far in the most recent walk that took place on the 4^thof April between the cities of London, Lisbon and Bologna, whereby the route that was taken in each city drew the hashtag #MNEMONICCITY. This walk was part of a wider social media campaign with the intention to build up an audience for Mnemonic City and the Lisbon project. (more about this walk here)

Mnemonic City is an arts project which aims to creatively re-frame experiences of geography and memory. The project has to date been staged in various locations in London, Madrid and Florence. On the weekend of the 21^stof August 2015, Mnemonic City will be exhibiting at the Barbican Centre in London and Mnemonic City: Lisbon will take place in September 2015 with a series of exhibitions and events throughout the month. Partners in the London project are Lab Film Projects, Something Human and Open Vizor. Partners in the Lisbon project are Roundabout.LX, Something Human and Visual Container.