An unusual exhibition documenting the winter of 2020 during the covid pandemic will go on display at Ramsgate Port next month.
Marianne Dissard, a French-born singer, writer and performer who lived on a wooden, ketch sailboat in Ramsgate harbour until moving to dry land last year, has funded and created ‘Hands, Faces, Ramsgate – The year Christmas was cancelled,
The display, which can be viewed from August 27 to September 27, is in Ramsgate’s industrial port, off Military Road at the entrance to the ex-Covid test centre and will be open 24/7.
The fringe event of Ramsgate Festival of Sound will consist of large-scale and developing brushed aluminium direct-to-metal photography prints hung over hundreds of smaller blue back posters left to decay over four weeks on a 60-metre span of metal fence at the port.
The installation is dedicated to the ‘lost to Covid’ echoing the Sailors Church at the Royal Harbour which is to the ‘lost at sea’.
Visitors are invited to wander the site, and sit on the large, distanced, and bench-like rocks to reflect.If moved to do so in the quiet of the moment, people are also invited to call a dedicated phone message line (07 4346 42 514) to react to the photographs and share their recollections of winter lockdown as well as their hopes, fears, and frustrations at the events of this year and last.
The recordings will be combined with the photographs in a book and video about the collective experience of winter lockdown 2020.
Marianne works across multiple creative disciplines. Her acclaimed recent memoir ‘Not Me’ was turned into a full touring theatrical experience and she is also a filmmaker and performance artist.
In 2020, with touring cancelled, she embarked on the street photography project documenting winter lockdown in Ramsgate. One of her Ramsgate prints has been selected by Turner Contemporary in Margate for the Open Call autumn 2021 show.
Marianne is best known for her role in the Tucson’s music scene, making the Arizona city her home for two decades. She has collaborated with members of Giant Sand, Orkesta Mendoza, and Calexico, duetting with singer Joey Burns on the latter’s ‘Ballad of Cable Hogue‘ hit, while Burns produced her first album ‘L’Entredeux’. She is currently writing her fourth album of original music with Ramsgate-based producer Raphael Mann .
