elements of memory

four-channel video installation, 2005 

 

 

Video installation "Elements of Memory" was made for the exhibition in the Museum of Dante in Florence.
My impressions of the epic pictures of the another world in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” are inextricably linked with the four elements: air, water, earth and fire. They are active and changeable and they are the protagonists of the poem, along with the inhabitants of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell.
In the video installation "Elements of Memory" I start from these impressions of the “live” and mobile elements, involved in the interaction with those who remained only in our memories.

Video installation “Elements of Memory”  consists of four parts: “Memory of Water”, “Memory of Fire”, “Memory of Ground” and “Memory of Air”.  

Our memories can be calm, expressive, hard and light.  The major elements: air, water, fire and earth are diverse and active too: light, sparkling air, calm, indifferent or oppressive and boring water, expressive fire, hard ground.

 

“Memory of Water”. Out of depths of our memory, like out of depths of a river, forgotten faces of people on old photo pictures are coming back from oblivion. The faces are easily recognizable in their familiarity, although they are not with us.

 

“Memory of Fire” (“Non-Existent Home”).  It is our own past, sweet and serene, going into non-existence, where all memories perish in fire.

 

“Memory of Air”. Look at blue sky attentively and may be you can see names of those, whose memory we hold dear.

 

“Memory of Ground”. Terrestrial cortex is moving, heavy and sluggish: as if our memories are shifting agonizingly.