Memory
Memory is the yoke that binds history. It enjoins the experience of all organisms over time and space. Like the striations of archaeological layers, like the meeting of two people, like a footprint in mud, memory is the collision of past and present, many pasts and many presents.
From left: Philippe de Champaigne's Vanitas, c. 1671, oil on canvas, Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France. Jean-Simon Berthélemy, Bust of Denis Diderot, oil on canvas, 1784, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Photo still from Christopher Nolan’s Memento, 2000.
Memory lives in numerous places: in the ruins of architecture, in the writings on walls, in pictures, and in our minds. It is both physical and immaterial, deeply buried and superficial, blurry and lucid. For the historian, remembering is twofold. As MIT HTC PhD candidate ElDante Winston asserts, “with the understanding that memory is shaped in the present time of recall, the historian must be aware of the temporal difference between the occurrence and the remembrance.” (1) Memory is reconstructive. Its very act is a process of editing the past. When, for example, one looks at the ruins of Rocca Galliera, the beholder of such history brings with them their own prior knowledge. It is a fusion of the old and new. As such, the temporal stance of the historian should play a larger role in the conversation of history. In other words, the historian’s past experiences are important when considering their version of history-making. One might conclude, following Winston’s suggestions, that the author is, in fact, not dead.
Image: Ruins of Rocca Galliera. A reminder of Bolognese Unity/The repression of Papal oppression.
Photo by ElDante Winston, MIT HTC PhD Candidate
Winston’s dissertation examines the role of memories in the history of architecture. More specifically, he is interested in the ways in which the collective memory of a given group of people is transmitted, be it oral, written and/or pictorial. He explores how “the contemporary architectural historian could reposition architecture associated with violence within the discourse of architectural history by thinking deeply about how the history of architecture relates to the memories and repressions associated with it.” Here, reposition is key. Memory is not only reconstructive, but it can be reconstructed. By recognizing the presence or absence of memories vested in architecture, historians of architecture can shed light on important facets of history and work to dislodge overarching narratives.
Graffiti on the inside walls of Église Saint-Paul in the Marais quarter of Paris, likely from c. 1870 during the events of the Paris Commune. Photos : ©Anaïs Costet from https://www.lemaraismood.fr/un-scandaleux-graffiti-eglise-saint-paul/
Memory links the ruins of Rocca Galliera, Revolutionary graffiti on the walls of Église Saint-Paul, the writings of Denis Diderot, memento mori paintings and Memento (2000) Polaroids. These physical vestiges speak. They ask us to continue to remember them. Most importantly, memories ask us to reflect on our own positionality within time and our own gravitational force within the warp of it.
(1). ElDante Winston’s PhD dissertation abstract.