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Austins: Memory & Place

A situated art project commissioned by the Culture Company for Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture 2013. Austins is the oldest independent department store in the world, trading in Derry since before the Irish famine and predating the existence of Harrods and Macy’s by decades. Performances took place in-store, 14 November and 5-6 December 2013.

Three core research questions driving the project were:

1. What types of knowledge are produced when situated art practices explore the relationship between individual/collective memory and the dynamics of space in a socially and culturally significant location?

2. What advantages/limitations are exposed when deploying strategies influenced by relational aesthetics and dialogic art practices in the staging of a medium-scale situated artwork?

3. In what ways can forms of relational dramaturgy connect with and enhance situated art practices that aim to engage audiences in immersive performances?

My methodology productively collided radical curatorial practices, relational aesthetics, and situated art and applied theatre practices, in ways that sought to illuminate social history and the cultural significance of an iconic location in Derry.

Memory Store, part one, was a day-long series of encounters created within Austins, allowing staff and customers to remember the store in a number of ways. Key strategies included:

- A pop-up exhibition in a disused bridal suite, where staff and customers brought items they felt evoked a strong association with the store. Participants co-curated this temporary exhibition, which was then opened to the public.

- A writer’s workshop in the kitchenware department, encouraging participants to share memories and turn these into considered prose.

- In the Store’s rooftop restaurant guests were invited to teach our performers how to dance their favourite dance and to reminisce as they did.

Part Two, the Big Shop Show, staged a series of concurrent performances and curatorial interventions over two nights in Austins. Audiences were engaged with one-to-one dance performances, object-based performances, larger movement-based pieces, and other forms of immersive performance within the store.