A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Single channel video 24’49’’, artefacts from the archive. 2016
The project recounts the history of the Damagomi Group, a group of spiritualists and academics active in Northern California from the 1920s until the late 1970s. It was the goal of the group to find alternative forms of communication with the natural world.
The project has the form of an ever-expanding archive that pieces together the history of the group. The archive includes documentation as well as re-enactments of experiments allegedly carried out by the group.
Schönfeld uses both actual historical as well as fabricated documentation. Some of the characters who play a role in the group are historical figures and some are invented. He also uses a number of historical sites as backdrops for the documentation of alleged activities of the group and situates re-enactments of these activities in these same locations. The line between the originals and reconstructions is purposefully kept ambiguous, and they are used interchangeably throughout the project.
During Survival Kit 8, Schönfeld showed the video piece A Brief History of the Damagomi Group as well as a number of artefacts from the Damagomi Archive. In addition to this, an attempt was made to reconstruct a Damagomi experiment using apparatus from the collection of the Pauls Stradins Museum for History of Medicine.
Artist's Bio:
Floris Schönfeld (1982) is currently based in London and Amsterdam. The focus of his work in the last years has been the relationship between fiction and belief. Through multifaceted research projects and installations he constantly tries to find the line between defining his context and being defined by it. Schönfeld has recently shown his works in group shows and screenings at the Amsterdam Film Biennale, the Rencontre Internationales in Paris, the Shanghai Biennale and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He has made solo shows and presentations at di Rosa in Napa, The Nest in The Hague and CAC in Vilnius (with Jude Crilly). Schönfeld is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.