Liminal Memories

‍“Between your fingers, you hold a stone and throw it into flowing water. The effect might not be easy to see. There will be a small ripple where the stone breaks the surface and then a splash, muffled by the rush of the surrounding river. . . If a stone hits a lake, however, the lake will never be the same again.” 

~ Elif Shafak  
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What is memory? How do they form/disappear/change? Are they only the databases of the past? If so, how reliable are these databases? Is it possible to have false memories? What are the memories of the future? How do non-human entities enunciate memories? Why do we forget? Is it as vital to forget as it is to remember?

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Memory is essential to human (and perhaps non-human) existence and intimately linked to identity. Who we are, what we think, and how we interact with our surroundings - are closely tied to our past and what we remember. However, how reliable is the process of remembering? According to science, every time someone recalls something from the past, the neural network in the brain slightly changes. That means one might not remember the same event from the past the same way every time one thinks of it.   

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‍Liminal Memories is an exhibition with the outcome of a one-month transdisciplinary residency program organized by Flusslab. Five artists from Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, and Ukraine were invited to come to Coswig (Anh.) to realize new projects. How different settings and surroundings change one’s perception, thoughts, and behavior was the backdrop idea of the residency. In other words, the symbiotic relationship between the space and oneself and how they impact each other. Each artist’s work resonates with the concept of memory, both biological and artificial. This exhibition depicts the experience of liminality they shared together.

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