nostalgia for an unknown land

performance / audio / video / mixed media
tara ernst / manuela büchting
2010

In their performance installation Nostalgia for an Unknown Land artists Manuela Büchting and Tara Ernst use the metaphoric meaning of the boat to explore the duality of nostalgia as both a desire to escape from and a yearning to return to ones perceived idea of home. Caught on an irreconcilable ocean, Büchting and Ernst reenact their attempt to find or lose themselves in each other's respective countries, Germany and Canada.

Through the personal reflection and childhood memories of both artists, we are taken on a mythical journey that explores the irreconcilability of nostalgia and its complex relationship to our utopian dreams of a better place, be it past or future, somewhere we've been or some place we long to go.

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