A BASIC CHRONOLOGY OF AMNESIS: THE ARTS OF AMNESIA AND THE
LOST  OBJECT

 
 
"I find the Amnesis concepts of Nicomedes Suárez-Araúz  regarding amnesia serving inductively to inspire artists' imaginative creation to be valid and exciting."
                                              R. Buckminster Fuller, 16 February 1982

 "Amnesis, un nuevo planteo, nacido en América, tiene como adalid  a Nicomedes Suárez Araúz, poeta boliviano, va más allá de la escuela nacida entre ambas guerras y deriva en reflexiones lúcidas poniendo además en juego conciencia y racionalidad para pasar de la poesía al campo de las artes visuals, música, opera, ballet, cinemafotografía y plástica"
                                          Manuel Serrano Pérez,  PROA, [revista fundada por Jorge Luis Borges], Enero-Febrero, 1990

 
1973 Suárez-Araúz [SA] formulates the concepts of Amnesis aesthetics in an essay. These concepts, SA notes, are derived from his living experience in his homeland in the Amazon basin, a land beset by myriad lacunae in its collective memory. Those were first expressed in SA's  poetry since 1965.
 
1974 Suárez-Araúz publishes the prose and poetry volume Los escribanos de Loén [1974, 1982] embodying Amnesis concepts.
 
1975

The America Poem (Lascaux Publishers), a book-length poem by Suárez-Araúz published with the pseudonym of El  Poeta Movima in a translation into English by Willis Barnstone and the author. This poem exemplifies aspects of Amnesis poetics .

 
1976 In Tampa, Florida, Suárez-Araúz creates paintings of emblematic "Lost Objects".
 
1980 The author was key-note speaker on Amnesis at an International Symposium at Frostburg State University, Maryland.
 
1981 José Manuel Rodeiro begins his series of Amnesis works of art.
 
1982 Architect and philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller supports Amnesis theories.
 
1983  Lascaux Publishers publishes a poster promoting Amnesis and requesting submissions for anthologies of related works of art from all fields.
 
1983 Poetry reading by Suárez-Araúz of Amnesis poetry at the Lennox Center for the Arts, Lennox, Mass., a theater owned and directed by Ms. Lynnn Austin.
 
1983  José Rodeiro guest lectures on the relationship of Amnesis and painting at Simon's Rock of Bard College, Great Barrington, Mass. The same year Rodeiro was awarded a CINTAS Fellowship from New York's Institute of International Education to create Amnesis paintings.
 
1984  Suárez-Araúz teaches a course at Simon's Rock of Bard College on Amnesis aesthetics. Course title: "Memory and Amnesia in Literature and Art."
 
1984 Suárez-Araúz publishes his Amnesis Manifesto in Barcelona, Spain.
 
1984  Several exhibits by Amnesis artists SA, José Rodeiro, Mirta Tocci, Jim Klein, Ann Webb.
 
1985 SA writes an essay on Amnesis for a special 10th Anniversary issue of Diario 16 (Madrid, Spain), also for Presencia Literaria and Signo (both from La Paz, Bolivia).
 
1985 José Rodeiro wins a National Endowment of the Arts award for his Amnesis Paintings, the funds to be used to travel for one year to Barcelona, Spain, to collaborate with SA "and to resolve [his] attempts at Amnesis art." (from J. Rodeiro's NEA grant proposal). The Baltimore Sun publishes an article on "Amnesia Art" on the ocassion of his NEA award.  January 1984-Februray, 1986. Shows of Amnesis art by Rodeiro.
 
1985 Spanish-Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi publishes a story dedicated to Suárez-Araúz: "El club de los amnésicos" in Destino magazine (Barcelona).
 
1985 Suárez-Araúz lectures at Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania) and at Smith College (Massachusetts) on the subject of Amnesis in literature and the other arts.
 
1986 Amnesis Manifesto republished in The Exquisite Corpse (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), a journal edited by Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu nominates the manifesto for the CCLM/General Electric Award. 
 
1987 The Baltimore Sun publishes an article on José Rodeiro and his involvement with Suárez-Araúz and  Amnesis.
 
1988  L.A. Weekly publishes an article on Jim Klein noting his relationship to Amnesis.
 
1988 Suárez-Araúz lectures on Amnesis at the Boston City Council Art Commission.
 
1988  Suárez-Araúz is interviewed by Time Magazine and The New York Times for background material on Amnesis.
 
1988  Amnesis: The Art of the Lost Object is published. A book by Suárez-Araúz on Amnesis philosophy and including representative works (drawings, an architectural design, paintings, lithographs, collages, sculptures, poetry)
 
1988  October 20-November 3, an art exhibiton, "Amnesis: The Art of the Object," is presented at the International Club of Washington, curated by Suárez-Araúz.
 
1989 Andrei Codrescu edits and publishes The Stiffest of the Corpse (City Lights, San Francisco), selected works from The Exquisite Corpse journal, including The Amnesis Manifesto.
 
1984-2000   Suárez-Araúz writes many articles, gives interviews and holds several events in the United States, South America and in Europe.
 
 2001 May 23-24, Suárez-Araúz reads a paper on Amnesis at the SUNY at
Binghamton University's conference "Time, Memory, Text."
 
2000-02 Professor Anna Botta of Smith College adopts the Amnesis Manifesto for her Comparative Literature course.
 
2002 Critic Sunka Simon in her book Mail Orders: The Fiction of Letters in Postmodern Culture (SUNY Press) analyzes and comments on Suárez Araúz's Amnesis concepts.

 

@ Nicomedes Suaárez-Arauúz, 1973, 1976, 1984, 1986, 1988.