Marginal Characters — Alessandro Magania

ALESSANDRO MAGANIA

MARGINAL CHARACTERS PROJECT

This is an ongoing, multifaceted project through which I explore marginal characters and sidelines narratives outside of the confines of their intended setting, while investigating our relationship to protagonism. The project has in its inception taken the shape of a collection of memories of marginal characters in literature and folklore. Friends, acquaintances, and strangers are recorded, asked to talk about a character from a book they read or a tale they were told, that stuck with them but wasn’t one of the main characters, prompted to also come up with details about their appearance and lives not provided by the author.

In a first iteration, Pieces of Stories Meet Peces of Violins at a Gallery (May 2023, Brick Aux Gallery, Brooklyn), transcribed segments of these recordings were read verbatim set to a score or equally fragmented music, played on broken violins by Marija Kovačevič. In a gallery setting, these recountings of often blurred memories are imagined as etchings of mysterious vignettes, altered by time. An assemblage of impressions of moments and characters that left an impression.

“While this project continues an ongoing exploration of bringing to the foreground characters, narratives, or aspects of performance meant to be marginal as a way to tackle ideas about visibility and perspective, it also stems from an interest I’ve been cultivating in folklore. I keep trying to imagine what aspects of our culture will be perceived as heritage years down the line, and I’m fascinated by the idea that what turns culture into folklore is possibly a passing of hands and authorship contaminated by unreliable memory. I love the idea of gathering memories. Maybe someone who sees this performance will retell one of these stories embellished by their own memory, perhaps melded with another. And maybe that will become its own story that will find its way to an anthropologist of the future.

Future sharings of more memories are currently being scheduled, focusing on specific communities and neighborhoods.

Pieces of Stories Meet Pieces of Violins at a Gallery was performed May 26 and 17, 2023 at Brick Aux Gallery, Brooklyn
Created and performed by Alessandro Magania with Marija Kovačević
Text contributions by: Kitty Chen Dean, Nick Cregor, Richard Epro, Alison Folland, Justin Gordon, Riitta Ikonen, Modesto Flako Jemenez, Savannah Knoop, Fiorella Maestrani, Thoma Marshall, Tanya Marquardt, Nicolas Noreña, Lee Relvas, Eric Schaal, Tim Scott.