Reel memories in exhibition

Atom Egoyan sings Doe a Deer in the exhibition

By Mike Fox in Montreal, Canada

An art exhibition paying homage to old reel to reel tape machines and the memories contained in their recordings has opened in Montreal.

The exhibition called Hors d'Usage or Out of Use is the latest attempt by the Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan to explore the relationship between technology and memory.

His inspiration for the exhibition comes from his fascination in the physical connection between the recorded sound, the recorder and the spool of tape on which the recording is made.

"I think we are moving away from a whole aspect of technology when we could relate it to our own bodies and that it was an extension of our bodies," he said in a recent interview.

Digital age

"If something breaks, a spring in the machine or the tape, it's like something breaking in your body."

Recorded sound is central to the show

Egoyan also compares the physical act of oxides on the tape being moved, to that of the Biblical idea of the graven image, a relationship which he says is being lost in the digital age.

He describes the installation in the basement gallery of the Musee d'Art Contemporain as a "mausoleum that commemorates the technology of reel to reel tape machines".

Egoyan first became interested in the machines when his father used one to record audio diaries and the sounds of his children - a recording of the seven year old Atom Egoyan singing Doe a Deer from The Sound of Music is included in the exhibition.

Memories

But his artistic interest started when in 2000 he produced a screen version of the Samuel Beckett play Krapp's Last Tape, starring John Hurt.

Written in 1958, the play shows Krapp sitting alone listening to recordings he had made 30 years previously.

It contains the last recorded words of a sound technician who committed suicide shortly afterwards

In one scene he hears his younger self describes memories that the old man finds unbearably beautiful - but he can remember nothing of the moment.

In Egoyan's production Krapp played by Hurt caresses the machine lovingly, his only connection to his own past.

Egoyan has also explored the issue of memory in his films ¿ his latest Ararat draws on his Armenian background and shows a film director (played by Charles Aznavour) exploring the allegations that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Turks in the early 20th Century.

Community

Since its premiere at Cannes in May it has drawn strong criticism in Turkey

In his current exhibition Egoyan is exploring the memories of another community. He asked the people of Montreal to donate old reel to reel machines and their recordings, and to talk about the importance of the machines and the recordings.

Videos of those interviews are projected onto the floor of the exhibition, with dozens of tape recorders displayed around the edge.

The interviews reveal a wide range of uses for the machines - from teenagers making compilation tapes for parties, so that no-one would have to bother changing the records over or worrying about the needle skipping, to audio letters sent from Britain to someone settling into their new life in Montreal.

One man donated a recording of his mother rehearsing for her days singing in a nightclub - it turned out to be one of her last recordings as she became frustrated and took a desk job.

Perhaps the most poignant contribution is the reel of tape sitting silently in the exhibition, on the same style of plinths carrying the tape machines. It contains the last recorded words of a sound technician who committed suicide shortly afterwards.

The rest of the machines play their recording after a visitor stands looking at the machine for a few seconds, and then stops when they go away.

It requires the viewer to pay attention, to want to listen - otherwise the exhibit stays silent, rather like the old tapes remained silent for so many years in people¿s store-rooms.