Having to operate daily in a flow of tasks, events, and meetings, people’s relationships with friends and relatives, especially with the older generation, are significantly influenced by such a rhythm of life. It becomes harder for grandparents to understand their grandchildren, and vice versa. Communication weakens, and even the threat of it disrupting forever at any moment doesn’t help to change the situation.
Gonzo Design, a studio of visual communication, together with Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, invite family members to try to talk with each other in a different way—using photographs.
We suggest coming to the Museum with the family and bringing along around thirty to forty photographs. It would be especially useful if grandparents bring images that have not been featured in family albums, and grandchildren—photos from different time periods which they would like to discuss (recommended format: 10 x 15 cm).
Each family will be seated at a separate table to make it easier to lay out the images and discover parallels and similarities between them. Concluding the meeting, the families will display their shared photo histories of two generations which can be saved in a photo album.
The meeting takes place as part of the international multimedia project Generations Storiesexploring the possibility of building on ties with one’s roots and reconsidering oneself in the digital era. Each Generations Storiesparticipant becomes a fully-fledged co-author of the project which is aimed at demonstrating that there is a lot more in common between generations than we think and engaging the older generation in current life. The work with photographic material allows communication to be set up between the generations, it breaks stereotypes related to age, and strengthens cultural ties. Generations Storiesis a project about memory and society where there is place for everyone.
The project is organized with the support from Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in St. Petersburg.