Simon Pope, artist and expert walker, walked 26 miles to build a collective memory of the Olympics:
[He] walked 26 miles through the five east London boroughs that will play host to the 2012 Olympics. Along the way he talked to over 100 local residents about their memories of the Games, and from that made a new film, Memory Marathon…
He didn’t walk alone. Each of the 100 London residents walked with him:
Each resident walked a 400-metre section of the 26 mile route with Pope who asked them to talk candidly about a moment from Olympic history that had affected them personally. Each memory reveals not only feelings of hope, excitement and disappointment, but also the way in which our collective memories are so often held together through shared experiences of moving images.
My first thought was: a different take on a “memory palace.” Not only are residents remembering, but I’d argue the spatial relationships of each 400 meters becomes a map for each story, supporting viewers in remembering the collective whole. Yet, taken another way, it’s simply, and quite beautifully, a 26-mile-long interview.
