Act of Memory: A collective recital of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Video clip of the recital, by the University’s UDHR steps, on Tuesday 10 December, 2014
Act of Memory is a performance from memory of the entire Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Anyone can come along and take part. You just need to focus on one article – the one that matters the most to you.
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Recitors are asked to memorise one article of their choice in the language of their preference – and to recite them by heart in a collective performance of all 30 articles. The recitations don’t have to be perfect. Mistakes, faltering under the pressure of the moment are part of the experience. The recitations are about bearing witness and voicing the attempt to meet the call ‘for every individual and every organisation to constantly keep this Declaration in mind’, while embodying the frailty of human agency in relation to justice and the struggle for both personal and public memory.
The recitors, by offering different voices and reciting in different languages will make the performance specific to the University of Essex – nuanced, inflected and impassioned by individuals who commit themselves to reciting the Articles from memory.
The performance on campus will be filmed, so we can show the reading on You Tube and Vimeo etc, to emphasise the universality of human rights across and despite different social spaces, interest groups and international borders.