2023.02 Souvenirs in Situ
/sooova'nir/ noun
a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event.
mémoire (f)
a call to action
...is a publics-driven project (website) capturing Montreal's most iconic landscapes through a series of public clotheslines. Hanging from these clotheslines are religious garments-including a niqab, abaya, and hijab scarf-framing a counter-memory to the province's hegemonic powers that uphold Bill 21.
The clotheslines are filmed, photographed, and then made into postcards-a medium so emblematic of tourism-to re-contextualize the city's constructed image and subvert the scales of visibility vis-a-vis institutional secularism and clothing.
The postcards are circulated for self-identifying Muslim women to write and share an affective memory of place, dress, belonging, freedoms, etc., when maneuvering Montreal's public spaces. Every six months, the postcards are mailed to the city's acting Members of Parliament as a means of tending to and acknowledging conflicting memories of place along with amplifying underrepresented voices at the seat of policy reform.
As such, the project is an ongoing ritual of remembrance done by the public and for the public.
This project is funded and developed by Harvard University's MDes Research & Development Award.
Alisha Kapoor (she/her) is a second-year Master in Design Studies (Publics Domain) candidate and holds an M. Arch and B. Arts & Sc., with honors. Her research focuses on collective storytelling and placemaking within oppressive or contested spaces. In particular, she employs computational textiles as systems for continuous engagement, mnemonic devices, and tracing phenomenological limits from local practice.
