In celebration of the Serpentine Gallery’s Memory Marathon next weekend, AnOther is offering readers the chance to win tickets by tweeting us your earliest memory...
In celebration of the Serpentine Gallery’s Memory Marathon next weekend, AnOther is offering readers the chance to win tickets by tweeting us your earliest memory.
For the seventh iteration in its ideas marathon series, held in the Serpentine pavilion, designed this year by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, a number of contributors from the worlds of science, art, architecture, astronomy, literature and history will delve into the concept of memory from varied and often unexpected standpoints. Over three days, there will be great feats of memory, as performed by the World Memory Champion Ed Cooke, scent expert Sissel Tolaas will explore how smells can arouse the subconscious, and neuroscientist Israel Rosenfield will tackle 'the problem of memory' in conversation with writer John Hull.
Tweet the story of your first memory using the hashtag #memorymarathon and there are twenty pairs of tickets on offer to the best tales. By way of inspiration, we have compiled a list of our favourite first memories from contributors to Jefferson Hack’s AnOther Proust Questionnaire.
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Hans Ulrich Obrist: Seeing the thin long sculpture of Alberto Giacometti as a child in Switzerland.
Tilda Swinton: Trees from my pram.
James Franco: It’s too hard to extricate actual memories from old photographs. But I remember swimming pools; I remember dressing up in a 49er jersey; I remember being in the living room for Christmas morning; I remember deviled eggs with paprika; I remember The Runaway Bunny and The Velveteen Rabbit; I remember my bunk bed with space creatures on the sheets; I remember dinosaurs; I remember my dad in a cheap, black and blue Kimono.
Carine Roitfeld: Fighting with my older brother Pierre.
Gore Vidal: Being unable to recall my memories.
Jake Chapman: A doctor slapping my arse so hard I shrieked.
Tracey Emin: Drinking tea from a bottle. I remember it distinctly because I had my twin brother’s bottle and he had mine. It had a blue teet. I remember thinking there is strange stuff in this bottle – milky tea. Maybe that is why I’m such a massive tea drinker now.
John Waters: Being in my crib and listening to the radio soap opera Helen Trent with my Mom.
Glenn O’Brien: Walking in the rain.
David Bailey: The blitz.
The Serpentine Memory Marathon runs 12-14 October 2012. To win tickets, tweet your first memory to @anothermagazine using the hashtag #memorymarathon by Monday October 8. Winners will be contacted next week. To buy tickets for the event, click here.
