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Apologies at the World Financial Center
Mini-documentary available here /apologies-wfc-video.html
Beffel installed “Apologies at the World Financial Center” as part of the recovery effort following September 11th. The project consisted of clear soap bars embedded with the words “I’m Sorry” and apology stories. Over 5,000 hand-cast soap bars were given away to a diverse public. As Beffel noted in her 2002 interview, the project was animated by her conversations with others who shared their stories of apologies. She acted as a facilitator for this sharing.
Afterword: This project was created in 2002, at a particular moment when the rhetoric surrounding the events of September 11th often lacked empathy, and when many of the people Beffel spoke with concerning the Apologies Project were eager to share their stories or texts, in part or whole, with attribution or as fragments offered for use in fictions. The intent of the apology stories Beffel posted was to call attention to, and critique, and teach about the social contract of apology and its usefulness in revealing power relations, including systemic inequities.
Author Judy Holmes quoted Beffel in her interview, “The project has been a huge amount of work,” Beffel says. “Sometimes, it’s painful work. But it’s work that is important to me, that connects me to others and raises important questions about human connections, how power is brokered and how we relate to others. After Sept. 11, our connectedness and relationship to human beings around the world became more vivid and brought these questions into sharper focus.”
Like all situationally oriented projects, the world has changed a great deal since this project was created. Beffel asks viewers to interpret the project, to the extent possible, in the context of 2002 when it was live as well as its life since then as it intersects with their own.
Apologies at the World Financial Center, [date]. World Financial Center, New York, NY.
Project Funded By:
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Brookfield Properties
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts
Beffel Lighting
Gunk Foundation
Thanks to Trisha Brookbank for her incredible assistance with soap casting.
Photos: Interior photos by Anne Beffel unless otherwise noted; exterior photos courtesy of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Afterword: This project was created in 2002, at a particular moment when the rhetoric surrounding the events of September 11th often lacked empathy, and when many of the people Beffel spoke with concerning the Apologies Project were eager to share their stories or texts, in part or whole, with attribution or as fragments offered for use in fictions. The intent of the apology stories Beffel posted was to call attention to, and critique, and teach about the social contract of apology and its usefulness in revealing power relations, including systemic inequities.
Author Judy Holmes quoted Beffel in her interview, “The project has been a huge amount of work,” Beffel says. “Sometimes, it’s painful work. But it’s work that is important to me, that connects me to others and raises important questions about human connections, how power is brokered and how we relate to others. After Sept. 11, our connectedness and relationship to human beings around the world became more vivid and brought these questions into sharper focus.”
Like all situationally oriented projects, the world has changed a great deal since this project was created. Beffel asks viewers to interpret the project, to the extent possible, in the context of 2002 when it was live as well as its life since then as it intersects with their own.
Apologies at the World Financial Center, [date]. World Financial Center, New York, NY.
Project Funded By:
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Brookfield Properties
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts
Beffel Lighting
Gunk Foundation
Thanks to Trisha Brookbank for her incredible assistance with soap casting.
Photos: Interior photos by Anne Beffel unless otherwise noted; exterior photos courtesy of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.