Memory Marathon: a ‘protest against forgetting’

We need wonder no more, as the forthcoming Memory Marathon staged by the London’s Serpentine Gallery is set to reveal how these eccentric gents will present what memory means to them.

Running concurrently with this week’s bonanza of art fairs, including Frieze and PAD London, Memory Marathon will take place in a glowing geodesic dome beside the Serpentine Gallery’s 2012 Pavilion, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei.

Dubbed a ‘festival of ideas’ by organisers, the continuous three-day event programme of talks, performances and experiments allows visitors to either pop in for specific solo presentations, – a ‘sprint’, if you will, or take in the whole three-day ‘marathon.’

More than 60 artists, writers, historians, musicians, scientists and even ‘robotics engineers’ have created work for the event, with other famous faces including REM frontman Michael Stipe, filmmaker Adam Curtis and poet Etel Adnan.

With the huge range of participants, performances will include music, presentations on culture and history and lessons on ‘what animal brains ‘do’ and how machines ‘think’, according to organisers. The ambitious amongst us can even pick up some tips on how to remember a 1,000-digit number in an hour.

 Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, says: ‘As a curator, I am constantly engaged in building memory or, as Eric Hobsbawm put it, leading a “protest against forgetting”. I look forward to exploring a subject that is so pertinent in an age where, as Ai Weiwei says, “we move so fast that memory is something we can only try to grasp”.’

Memory Marathon runs from 12- 14 October next to the Serpentine Pavilion, Kensington Gardens, London W2. For the full programme visit http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2012/10/memory_marathon.html