A toxic dreams Edutainment

Garage Sale or Things from the Attic
In Yiddish the word attic means boydem – which refers to things one put in the attic because one no longer wishes to see, or one no longer wishes others to hear. But the history that emerges from these objects/things will seem unfamiliar to many. So the attic/boydem is not full of things no one wishes to see, but things no one knew of their existence. Things that have histories, biographies, stories. Things that spin across time and space. Things that despite their secondary importance, otherwise they will not be in the attic in the first place, can tell us something new, something that is more than their original purpose/function.

The Dust of Things
Being in the attic means also being dusty. A layer of gray dry powder, consisting of tiny particles of earth or waste, covers the surfaces of things. The story of things is therefor the story of dust; removing it is part of uncovering the meaning of things. It is a detective work, the traces of dust, the footprints of time past. Things that gather or collect dust remain unused, unseen. In a context of a museum they are secondary citizens, things without a country (a wall, a pedestal, a glass box…). Things forgotten, things dead-alive.

The Performance of Things
Bringing things out of the attic, dusting them off, exposing them for all the world to see, it is an act of performance. Dead as they are, they perform their history, their story, their purpose. Like in an old black and white movie they are silent actors, props that can be tempered with. Their true story, or the story that is being made/fake for them, is the sound track added to their physical beauty. By beauty we mean the reason that kept them alive, the justification of them being part of a collection even when dusty and stored. The beauty of being a functional object, the beauty of being part of history, the beauty of surviving time and space, and sometimes the beauty of being simply that: beautiful objects. So, bring them out, let them act, dance, perform for a short moment. They are not the main role or even the supporting one in the big show, just a cameo appearance before being shipped backstage, to gather more dust.
(It is like the prisoner who gets an hour a day of sun light…)