Memory

HOUSING THE TIDES OF MEMORIES

Theme

Memory

Memory defines what remains after. To remember is to project into the present some past existence. Therefore memory calls into question the idea of how to transpose things, objects, people, ideas, in time. This projection in time happens by leaving or creating traces, remains of the past. These traces are the projection itself and they symbolise more than what they are, traces become the link between two times more than their actual presence in the present.

As an action of memory, art knows how to call into question the past existence of things and most of the art pieces presented here deal with some sort of recording. Revealing existing traces is part of the recording process of the past.

Traces can be either created, as an act of record and projection of the past, or as a performance of the artist to modify the environment and reveal time. This is for example what Richard Long or Christian Boltanski’s art pieces achieve. But traces can also exist before the artist’s intervention and be recorded or revealed. This is how Junichi Kurakake reveals the past use of the house by a simple action.

Concept

Housing the Tides of Memories

Space coexists with memory.

Every object has its own story.

Forgotten‧Rebuilt‧Revealed

The tide of nature dissolves old memories.

Old things, new photos

So, what is on your mind?

Past lifestyles vanish as memory fades. The story of a farmer’s family forty years ago could be traced through the remains of the abandoned house by rearranging the furniture.

Every object in the house originated from nature – wood, soil and stone. And now they are returning back to their origins, being engulfed by the green tsunami – just like our life cycle, born from the earth and buried in soil.

Simple rural family and the modern lifestyle are put in juxtaposition with framed photographs hanging on the door to reveal that our lifestyle is evolved from and connected to the past despite its changes.

From history to nature, from nature to our life – the connection never breaks. Hence we should appreciate them and not let those memories fade.

重建思潮

二零一三年十月十八日   晴

有空間的地方就有記憶。

每一件物品都有自己的故事。

遺忘 。重建。重現

大自然沖淡舊記憶

舊的物件，新的照片

你憶起甚麼？

回憶隨着舊生活而逝。透過重組棄置家居，四十年前的村農故事浮現眼前。

屋內每物皆來自自然 – 木，土，石 – 今歸還於土，再被自然之海嘯吞噬 — 恰似生命週期：生於土而葬於土。

掛在門前之新事物與堂前之舊物相映照，一目了然：現有的生活雖則變， 一切皆源於過去。

由歷史到自然再由自然到我們 — 其關係千絲萬縷。故應賞其美，以存記憶。