The stories begin the moment visitors enter.
Large-format screens flicker to life with faces weathered by loss.
Ambient sound surrounds them.
Life-sized portraits stare back.
This is not a gallery to observe from a distance.
This is memory made tangible.
“Ashes and Echoes: Voices of the Eaton Fire” opened Saturday at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, transforming 49 oral history interviews with survivors into an immersive multimedia experience that runs through February 3.
The free exhibit marks nearly one year since the January 7 fire killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of structures across Altadena and Pasadena.
“Forty-nine people who lived through the Eaton Fire will have their stories told in an unusual way beginning Saturday: not on a screen to be watched, but in an immersive installation to be walked through, reflected upon, and felt,” according to Pasadena Now.
Hrag Yedalian directs the oral history project and exhibit.
Working with installation artist Gegham Sargsyan and photographer Ara Oshagan, Yedalian has crafted an environment where survivors reflect on what home meant, what was lost, and what restoration looks like.
The project launched under the sponsorship of LA Fire Justice, a legal advocacy organization representing Eaton Fire victims in litigation against Southern California Edison.
The interviews will be preserved permanently through an online portal at youtube.com/eatonvoices.
Ashes & Echoes Exhibit: An Immersive Experience will run Tuesday Feb. 3 at 2:00 p.m. Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, Calif. For more information, call (626) 684-3315 or visit https://www.facebook.com/events/25612351911754064/.
