GAZING THROUGH MEMORY

Semantic elements of “cultural memory” are preserved for long periods of time as if percolating through changing languages, cultures, and chronological periods.

Cultural memory can be understood as a part of the collective domain, which is directly related to the present. It can be perceived as the transmission of socially valuable messages and can be thought of as information storage with inbuilt transmission mechanisms. 

Transmission is characterized by face-to-face communication between the sender and the recipient. Through this immersion in space and having associations that (at first sight) are free and unrelated to historical events, the listener experiences the moment as a link in time, which is disconnected from the chains of history, as if seen through a magnifier, examining the faces of the present in various combinations. Memory resurrects at the moment through the free associations of vision instigated by the “material” bearers. Distinguishing the past from the future makes its presence materially tangible.

Memories are forsaken and rediscovered...