False Memory
Idit Elia Nathan
Idit Elia Nathan, Diodrama, 2017, film still ©Idit Elia Nathan
Nathan’s practice consists of creating participatory experiences relating to false memory by fusing the personal, the collective, the archival and the re-imagined. These playful artworks exist within the context of conflict and political change. Diodrama seeks to engage audiences with complex socio-political issues such as mass migration and immigration, and tactically deploys play as a disruptive force. Here, three evocative photos of empty interiors of family homes - Frankfurt/Oder 1933, Jerusalem 1935, and London 1937 - all found in the family archive, are recreated in model form. Shown alongside is a film made using the original photographs. The film and the installation create a re-imagined migratory experience and a nostalgia of imaginative play with dolls houses.
Idit Elia Nathan draws on a wide variety of traditions and methods to collaborate with artists, curators and diverse communities to develop often site-specific interventions and artworks and often uses play as a provocative space in which the participant is challenged to confront their accepted understandings of identity. In 2018, Nathan completed a practice led research PhD at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design in London. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections.