Souvenirs of Fire

2019

Museum vitrines, burnt fossils, video projections
Solo exhibition at Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC) Lisbon
Co-produced by AiR 351 and MUHNAC

...

How does time burn?
In March 1978, a huge fire destroyed a large part of the Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon, at that time a highly endorsed institution within the European context.

As part of my research of the event, I conducted interviews with the employees who directly experienced the fire or indirectly learned about it, collecting fragments of oral histories of the event that dramatically changed the course of the institution.
“We were digging the carbonized fossils out of a thick layer of ashes and dusting them off with archeological brushes”, said the geologist Liliana Póvoas, one of the longest employees. I was subsequently shown the fire “survivors”. This moment struck me intensely and became a starting point for my project.

The burnt specimens remember the fire more than anyone else; they literally went through it. After four decades, the event remains inscribed in their matter.
What fascinated me, beyond their quirky aesthetics, was their ambivalent status in the context of the institution. The fossils lost their scientific value in the flames and had never been exhibited again. And yet – for the scientists who engaged with them they gained a special, emotional value, arising from the trauma they had been through together. They became the souvenirs of fire, resting in the limbo of the museum archive.

I returned them to the Museum’s official space – after almost a half-century, they were exposed to the eye of the public for the first time.
As witnesses of the dramatic historical event, they were installed in the official Museum vitrines within the permanent collection of strikingly beautiful minerals.
The installation was accompanied by my video essay titled Souvenirs of Fire.

The exhibition was realized in close collaboration with and generous support of the non-profit art organization and residency center AiR 351.
The project was supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council.

(Installation shots by JPS Undercover / Archival photos published with the permission of MUHNAC)