Art in the Anchorage 3: The Memory Theater of Giulio Camillo

Matthew Maguire with David Alton, Karla Barker, Agnes Boucher, Constance Crawford, Rob Elk, Michele Elliman, Christopher McCann, Michael Ryan, Nadja Smith, Mic Woicek; Visual Installations by Elizabeth Diller & Ricardo Scofidio, Joe Fyfe, Laurie Hawkinson, Kristin Jones & Andrew Ginzel, Kit-Yin Snyder, Allan Wexler, Elyn Zimmerman & George Palumbo; Jazz in the Anchorage with Geri Allen, Lester Bowie & Brass Fantasy, Marion Brandis & Myra Melford with Leroy Jenkins, Joseph Jarman & Thulani Davis, Oliver Lake & Blue Star, David Peaston & The Voice of Peace and Love

June 6 - July 13, 1986
The Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage
Photo Courtesy of Creative Time

For Art in the Anchorage 3, the participating artists and architects included Diller and Scofidio; Joe Fyfe, Laurie Hawkinson, Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel; Kit-Yin Snyder, Allan Wexler, Elyn Zimmerman and George Palumbo. Three installations were made for The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo, a play written and directed by Matthew Maguire. He expressed his alarm at US policy - the support of South Africa's apartheid government, the buildup of MX missiles, and the aid to the contras in Nicaragua. While there were no contemporary references, the theme of the play was the consequence of forgetting the past. Giulio Camillo was the hermetic philosopher (1480-1544) who created a memory theatre; a memory bank of scenes which depict the way memory functions. This was a form of image-theatre akin to Richard Foreman's work which uses minimal language. The play was criticized for being obscure and too contemplative. It was also a political work about cultural memory and the limitations of society's structures in coping with the world. The project included a jazz series on Sundays.