Quema los diarios (SP)

The work of the artist Moyra Davey (Toronto, 1958) has traditionally been associated with photography, film and video. However, her book Quema los diarios (November 2020) shows how literature and writing play a very significant role in her artistic production, which is increasingly close to publishing artists’ books. The interweavings and resonances between her filmic works are manifested, on this occasion, in the form of quotations. This first edition in Spanish is based on Davey’s generous reflections on the complex process of autobiographical creation. Traces and remnants that define her usual photographic treatment of everyday scenes are interwoven with a myriad of fugitive moments and bibliographic sources. Drawing on a particular attraction to the work of French playwright Jean Genet, Davey approaches scriptural memory from a variety of perspectives. This choral dialogue also includes an exchange with her childhood friend and reading companion, writer Alison Strayer, which illuminates the extensive relationship between image and language from the intimacy offered by shared friendship and creation.

“When asked about the decisive moment when he knew he was going to be a writer, Genet said buying a postcard in prison to send to a German friend:

The face I had to write on was white, it had a lumpy texture, a bit like snow, and that’s what prompted me to talk about it since, of course, we couldn’t find it in prison, to talk about Christmas, and instead of writing about anything else, I wrote about the quality of that thick paper. That was the impetus that allowed me to write”.

Excerpt from Burn the Diaries, Moyra Davey, 2020