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  • Essay / Art and memory

    As a basic tool of human existence, memory determines our actions and reactions to stimuli, creating a link between what has happened and what is yet to come. looking for patterns and similarities between people and events past and present. Memories can serve as warnings, when recognizing harmful behaviors in ourselves and others around us; we must not touch the stove on which we were burned before, so we take our hand again. However, this does not explain the human tendency to repeat our mistakes and oversimplifies the process, giving us more questions than answers. Conversely, memory can allow us to dwell on the pleasures of the past, thereby giving it even greater importance than the moment itself, obsessing over recording the memory without trying to experience it in a time given thanks to technology and its increased role in society and culture. These contrasting functions of memory seem to be a very attractive aspect of the phenomenon, inspiring both scientific research and literary works. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay As memory plays such a crucial role in our existence, it must also manifest itself in the world of contemporary art. Artists not only question its function in our daily lives, but also attempt to unravel the tangle of our expectations of it as a society and as individuals. Olivier Dyens writes: Born from human memory and emotions, art is a universal movement. Melancholy, sadness, joy, terror, anger, etc. constitute an Esperanto that any human being can read, understand and share. But emotion and art are nothing more than memories. Living beings remember and this is how they can exist consciously in time and space. Memory is fundamental for the emergence of order and complexity. Without memory, a being cannot learn and adapt to the demands of the environment. Without memories, a being cannot evaluate the state of its body (since this evaluation depends on an interaction between then and now), and is therefore unable to emerge as a conscious being. Memories of pleasure, pain, sadness and joy are the common thread that unites all human beings. Memories are our existence, and art is their replication system. Questions of identity based on memory and history, the impossible task of finding the "truth" behind sources that repeatedly prove unreliable due to the nature of our psychology, quests to rid ourselves of claws of trauma on a personal and social level- these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the depth of memory-related issues. Memory can be revisited – just as art can be viewed again and again – with different results each time. The process of going back and rewriting the past into the present is explored in depth in George Orwell's novel "1984", as a haunting image of the world in which memories are forcefully molded into what "the Party" wants let them be. Individual memory, faced with the strength of the political vision of the past, loses its importance. Siegfried J. Schmidt writes in his essay “Memory and Remembrance: A Constructivist Approach” (Erll, Nünning, Young 2008): The politics of memory is also guided by emotions and moral values, and it is intrinsically linked to power : who has the right to select topics and forms of remembrance in public discourse(s)? Who decides how the memories are told?rely on relevant presuppositions in order to shape the past in the present for a promising future? It seems impossible to discuss memory and history without including the role of politics in the equation. Memory as a theme in art does not necessarily have to be political, but it very often highlights how this coalition influences the world today. Eric Meyer writes as follows about the clash between memory and politics: The conflicts in the field of “politics of history” relate less to the facticity of historical reconstructions and the relevance of the resulting interpretations than to what the one might assume for discussion within the academic community. Rather, the interest lies in the meaningful connection between past, present and future, which is often associated with a reference to action. From this perspective, the question is not whether the image of the story being communicated is scientifically true. Rather, the crucial factor is how and by whom, as well as by what means, with what intention and to what effect past experiences are evoked and become politically relevant. (Erll, Nünning, Young 2008)As individuals, we only remember our subjective fragments: we only retain one perspective, one side of the story. However, societies as a whole remember what helps establish their identity. Art helps us bridge the gaps between universal and individual aspects of phenomena, bringing experiences common to all of us, but with a unique perspective on the medium used, as well as the questions asked and those not asked at all. . Andrea Dezsö, Artur Zmijewski and Doris Salcedo are three artists who address the theme of memory in art. Even though they share this topic (or some aspects of it), they bring something completely different. This is due to their unique cultural perspectives, respectively Romanian of Hungarian origin (Dezsö), Polish (Zmijewski) and Colombian (Salcedo) in the predominantly Westernized world of contemporary art, but also to the influence of their individual influences, national and global. human contexts of their perspectives on memory.Andrea DezsöBorn and raised in Romania in the 1970s/80s, Andrea Dezsö is an artist who combines her childhood memories with the dreams that accompanied her growing up, using a variety of mediums. Known for her New York City Subway mural/mosaic Community Garden, the artist uses themes of folklore, fairy tales, dreams and superstitions that illustrate the richness of her cultural heritage in all its nuances. She describes herself and her artistic practice in these words: a storyteller and image maker; truly a narrator of personal experiences, trying to make sense of what happened before and what is happening now. Perhaps the most literal example of her fascination with memory can be found in her series Lessons from My Mother, in which she embroidered a variety of her mother's sayings. , accompanied by illustrations. In her essay "The Feminist Rhetoric Embroidered in Andrea Dezsö's Lesson from My Mother", Adriana Cordali Gradea (2014) explains the influence of Romanian folklore and its tradition of "samplers" in Dezso's work and also highlights how the reinterpretation of the theme changes the context of the artifacts. The artifact and its practice help Dezsö connect the newly recreated messages to the condition of women throughout historical time. Starting from a humble, seemingly powerless and subaltern art form, exposed to the parish circle, Dezsö reuses the enriched artistic product for a different historical and geographical context, and this repurposed traditional artifact gains more.