Possible Damage

Tania El Khoury worked with a group of young artists to create an exhibition and series of interventions alongside Rabih Mroue’s exhibition We the Undersigned at Iniva. Possible Damage, an archive of the recent student protests, investigates the construction of social memory, and its consequent realities. It forms a collective archive through which we can imagine a group’s shared experiences, narratives and conflicts.

“Shortly after the first of the student protests here in London, at Millbank, we realised that something had happened, something that had precipitated events that we found ourselves unsure of. Since this time, we have established ourselves as archivists and investigators of the realm of possible damage to come. The precarious nature of the objects and documents that have found their way into our hands have dubious and sometimes speculative origins.

The archive is brought together from found, donated and created objects each lending its weight towards preserving a fragile memory of a particular event. The organising and indexing of the archive allows a speculative attitude towards the present and recent past. By refusing to adhere themselves to a set of truths, the material instead provokes a question of what is in fact believable, revealing the delicate bonds of social narrative and trust in a collective idea of history.

Part of our archive is dedicated to those who we call ‘the disappeared’. We still don’t know where these people are or how they disappeared, although of course we all have our suspicions. We know little of their identities but we do know that their actions, as anonymous beings, have influenced us all.”