Brains for dementia research

Mind Over Matter is an exhibition featuring a science-art collaboration between Dr Bronwyn Parry of Queen Mary College, London and the artist Ania Dabrowska about dementia.

The authors were privileged to meet some of Britain's oldest prospective brain donors who agreed to be photographed and interviewed about their lives and involvement in brain research. Drawing on themes of memory, death, the transience of the body and ageing, the artist evokes an experience of what it might feel like to lose one's memory. Ania Dabrowska interweaves photographic portraits, archival and medical photographs, projections and sound narratives to present a layered contemplation about the nature of memory loss, and to trace the new lives that the brains take on after the donor's death.

The authors explore the ethical, psychological, religious and social implications for donors and their families and researchers.  As some of the participants have now passed away, the project provides a unique record of their philosophies on life, the relationship between memory and identity, death, donation and the ephemerality of the body.

The exhibition will be at Shoreditch Town Hall, London EC1V 9LT from 12th to 23rd October 2011