MEMORY BAR

2019

In this multi-sensory installation, audiences were invited to taste the memories of others—specifically, survivors of the Nazi occupation of Jersey—through a series of elaborate cocktails and immersive, story-driven experiences. Each "course" in the tasting was drawn from first-hand interviews conducted by the artist, who translated personal histories into layered sensory compositions combining projection, scent, and taste.

The work unfolded as an intimate journey through memory, where flavours and aromas served as mnemonic devices, anchoring historical narratives within the body. As participants sipped each cocktail, ambient projections played across the surrounding space—fragments of landscapes, archival textures, and abstracted imagery that deepened the emotional and historical resonance of the stories being told. Scent drifted in tandem, designed to complement or disrupt the experience of taste, further blurring the boundary between the physical and the emotional.

By translating oral histories into visceral, sensory encounters, the installation challenged traditional forms of remembrance. It asked how we carry the memories of others, and what it means to consume history—not as metaphor, but as an embodied act. The result was both delicate and disquieting: an invitation to reflect on trauma, resilience, and collective memory through the most intimate of senses.