Maiden Memory

Poetic glossolalia about the destruction of the boundaries of official language, gender models, and cultural memory.

«In this work, archives of audio recordings, radio and TV programs, films, and educational programs become markers of official memory. In it we see the unification and conservation of exemplary and explanatory excerpts from life and language/voice patterns. The friendly intonations of the presenters that flow into the space of history and culture are copied every time. And now, repeat after me. Now you speak.

This is the choreography of the trained voice: precise and regulated phrases, correct pronunciation, professional intonation, correct emotions. An ossified emptiness wrapped as a sweet.

Unreflective articulation and behavioral norms, unreflective repetitions of a phrase are figures of alienation translated by older women. We do not look into the emptiness but fill the space of fear with a speech pattern. Like an invocation. Hour by hour and it’s no easier, woe is me, maiden memory.

My maiden memory. Like cards that have fallen from a pack, like the depths of a lake and unconscious codes, unossified material, scrappy, changeable, alive. We listen in to the world of sacred memory, to diaries, folklore, informal sound archives, the space of personal choice. Voice—speech—song.»

Cover: Courtesy Valentina Bek

Biography

margaritki is the duet Olga Zubova and Maria Karpovich, who work at the intersection of sound art, performance, sound research, and educational and laboratory practices. In their projects, margaritki work with found sounds, field recordings, voices, and various regimes and means of listening.