The past does not have to survive psychologically or physiologically in our brain, because it has not ceased to be, it has only ceased to be useful, it is, it survives in and of itself… The past is not constituted after it has been present, it coexists with oneself as present – Houari Bouchenak, curator
Henri Bergson shows us in his reflections on what he calls “memory-remembering” that remembering is not the representation of something that has been, the past, it is what we place ourselves in from the outset in order to remember. Memory, then, does not consist at all in a regression from the present to the past; it is in this very coexistence, “this coexistence of self with self”.
The research and creative work of by Algerian artist Sonia Merabet is the fruit of a cycle of residencies in Barcelona organised by Jiser, which questions what we store as memory through our different senses, beyond what we capture and what we retain as images, whether spontaneously or as a result of trauma, and how this memory can be alienated by the different contexts in which we live.
Are we masters of our memory or of its construction?
In this duality between memory and forgetting, Sonia Merabet has chosen to focus on sleep and insomnia in relation to this build-up of memory – a memory that is buried deep within us, from the near or distant past, but which may also be in the form of an inheritance from a collective memory that resurfaces in our present.
The process of research and reflection in this work is part of a temporality in relation to creation, where this component will mark the starting point or the first layer of a multitude of strata that make up our experience and therefore our memory through our different senses.
The exhibition is curated by Houari Bouchenak.
The exhibition is organised by Jiser, in collaboration with The Over gallery and the Pol & Grace Hotel.
The Over opens upon request. You can book your private visit via email at gr10m@hotmail.com. We would be honoured to host your visit at our gallery.
