“Name stories” is an exercise I have used since I began telling twenty years ago. That is because the exercise shows that everyone has a story to tell. For the project in April, I am now in a phase where I will collect stories about names. The story is printed, laminated and hung on a string at the entrance to the installation. They are also posted on the blog here. If you have an interesting, exciting, comic, or tragic event related to your name, send it to me. I am primarily seeking stories about the first name, but it can also apply to the family name.
The story does not have to be long, but may include the following:
-How did you get your name- inherited it, was it a random choice?
-How has it been to “carry” your name, was it misunderstood, some other who was called the same?
– What does your name mean?
The story can be send to: heidi@fortellerkunstner.no
I can tell you about my name. Today I am called Mimesis Heidi, it has not always been like this, and I must say that it feels strange when someone says it. The majority of people call me Heidi and that is what I usually use. So why Mimesis? It was a moment of «narcissist dullness».
First, Heidi. I am, of course, named after the book that so many of us meet in childhood, or rather an adaptation of it. My mother saw the movie about the girl on the cinema, about the girl in the Alps and thought that when she once had a daughter she should be named Heidi. She was not alone in deciding this. I always meet someone named Heidi for the same reason. It has always bothered me that I did not have a more exotic reason or a more exotic name for that matter.
Mimesis means imitation and is a comment to my own life. Mimesis is the opposite of diegesis (telling) which makes it into an ironic comment. Mimesis is also the name of my avatar, so the avatar had the name before I took it. One morning I thought: Will the «authorities» accept that I call myself that? I applied and got the application approved. I am the only one I know who is named after one avatar, or myself. That is, an extremely self-focus!!!!