Echoes of (Our) Memory & House of Hope Archives
Echoes of (Our) Memory, Olivia Melkonian
11:00 - 13:00, 27 July
Free Tickets
An exploration of the WANAWAL’s sound archive (or the Listening Lounge) through its curation, acquisitions and passing of communal knowledge. This workshop will navigate the spotlit pieces of the archive and share techniques of preservation and digitisation.
Participants will be encouraged to contribute to the creation of playlists that will be archived into the WANAWAL library.
House of Hope Archives, Sara Rahman & Lydia Ourahmane
Rescheduled - new date to be announced shortly
The House of Hope Archives comprises of photographic materials of Sara and Lydia’s family and their community in Algeria. Within the buildings in the images, an active spiritual movement and community was founded but none would assume that beyond those four walls was a civil war taking place across Algeria (1991-2002).
These materials, which have remained within their immediate family, are a testament to a community that grew behind closed doors, and for a period of time, in secret, in basements and various dwellings. Their parents and other members of the Christian community documented meticulously during this time and the archives serve as a historical document of a counter-cultural movement at the intersection of belief, association, assembly and recognition.
Today, this minority group are subject to prosecution and persecution by the Algerian government in what has been called a “systematic campaign” targeting the closure of churches, houses, spaces for gathering alongside imprisonment and court cases accusing Algerian Christians of proselytising and engaging in religious ritual.
As siblings with 6 years between them, Sara and Lydia will revisit this crucial period of childhood and the beginning of an underground religious counter-cultural movement in which these materials were produced. They will begin with a presentation followed by a discussion exploring the personal and oral histories of the community they grew up in as well as the present day realities on the ground.
Sara Rahman is a British-Algerian interdisciplinary composer, musician and researcher. Embarking from a classical contemporary background and experimental electronic music, Sara aims to interrogate the gaps in sonic anthropology, research and performance as a point of departure in her practice. She has been commissioned by Delfina Foundation, Sculpture International Rotterdam, the BBC and Sound and Music, and her compositions have been performed by Bratislava Symphony Orchestra at Slovak Radio Station. She has performed live at IKLECTIK, FOC, MACBA and Casa Montjuic, and released on the music label, 3024.
sararahman.co.uk
Lydia Ourahmane's research-driven practice spans spirituality, contemporary geopolitics, migration, and the complex histories of colonialism. She incorporates video, sound, performance, sculpture, and installation on an often large or monumental scale that has consequences beyond the walls of her exhibitions. Drawing on personal and collective narratives and experiences, Ourahmane challenges broader institutional structures, and the ways these forces are registered. Her recent solo exhibitions include: 108 Days, MACBA, Barcelona (2024), Tassili, SculptureCenter, NY (2022) and rhizome, Algiers (2023), Survival in the afterlife, Portikus; Frankfurt and De Appel, Amsterdam (2021); Barzakh, Kunsthalle Basel, Triangle – Astérides, Marseille, S.M.A.K. Ghent (2021); Solar Cry, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2020); and The you in us, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2018), among others. Her work was included in 60th La Biennale di Venezia (2024), 34th Bienal de São Paulo (2021) and the New Museum Triennial (2018).
lydiaourahmane.com
Olivia Melkonian is a producer, DJ and sound artist who has worked across radio, record labels, film production and the cultural sector. Invested in projects of cultural preservation, Olivia archives dialect, ritual and collective memory with a focus on family and the home. In her work, Olivia interrogates the endangered Western Armenian experience, which remains under threat of erasure. Through her practice, she presents memory as a tool of resistance and recording as an act of revolution.
oliviamelkonian.com