DORA PROJECT Exhibition

” Dear Francoise and Becky, I just wanted to let you know that I spent at least an hour in Peckham Platform yesterday with the Dora Project. I was completely enthralled. It is easily one of the most powerful exhibitions I’ve experienced in a while… well since Bill Viola up in Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

While I realise some elements were straightforward documentation, the archive boxes – not surprisingly – spoke so strongly to me, along with the installation of your combined works. I got a copy of the A3 booklet which I think works beautifully as a publication as well as document. I loved the testimonies on cardboard… It’s just a beautiful creation that brings extraordinary experiences forward into personal spaces in a very emotive but not sentimental way. My favourite box was Robert Berthelot’s. The pages of enlarged notes along with the letters and applications, created for me an oral history. It was like reading a Homeric poem, with refrains that shifted and added details with each telling … J’ai travaille au Halle 15… I also loved the overlapping texts and how the map was photographed and projected – the stuttering film of flowers in fields..

Anyway, I wanted to let you know what a wonderful work with the Archive I thought this was and can appreciate the immense amount of information and understanding you brought together. I look forward to reading the texts in the A3 booklet, and hope that the work itself stays visible somehow. All my best, Althea Greenan, Women’s Art Library, Special Collections, Library, Goldsmiths, University of London“

DORA PROJECT Exhibition was the final stage of DORA PROJECT

Peckham Platform, London, 8 April-15 May 2016

Click bellow to download PDF version of the Exhibition flier

Exhibition flier

DORA PROJECT Exhibition brought together mixed media artworks made in response to the challenge of visualising sites of suffering and the transmission of memory of past traumatic experiences. Artworks included Mapping a wall installation by Françoise Dupré and Grey Area: a map sketched in film by Rebecca Snow. These works were made following an extensive period of research including visits to international and local archives and V2 sites in London, Germany and France. Also on show was a documentary film by Year 9 students at the London Jewish Comprehensive School (JFS) about the role of scientists in war and ethics of science. Field Report was a school project led by Dupré and Snow in collaboration with JFS.

During the exhibition, DORA PROJECT third and last Commemorative Public Events in South East London was also held in collaboration with The Peckham Society. The event commemorated Peckham and Southwark’s V2 rocket victims, sharing memories and discussing the impact theses attacks had on people’s lives and surroundings.

A series of participatory and learning activities and talks exploring DORA PROJECT’s main themes were programmed through the duration of the exhibition at Peckham Platform. Visitors had the opportunity to contribute to DORA POSTCARD PROJECT by writing their testimonies and comments.

The exhibition received great coverage from local press (Peckham Peculiar, South London Press and Southwark News. Françoise Dupré was also on the BBC LONDON RADIO Robert Elms Show on 3 May 2016. She was invited to talk about DORA PROJECT Check the interview on the BBC Radio London website http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03s8nmq. The show was titled With the Shook Twins and ‘Whose London’
This is a 3 hour show and Françoise talks between 01.40 and 01.52.

Exhibition photos. © FXP Photography, London.