What remains when apparently there is nothing left? What is the potential of somatic and affective explorations to generate new perspectives on a problematic past?

A mould is an imprint of an object on a surface, the negative of form, palpable memory. For the ancient Greeks, memory was like an imprint on the soul of a past event. The 19th-century excavations in Pompeii revealed voids left by decomposed organic matter beneath solidified ash. Filled with plaster, these natural moulds produced faithful representations of men, women, children, and animals, frozen as if in eternal sleep.

Past Present. Fragments of Memory is a collective performance, that transforms the gallery into an active working site. Performers help visitors create moulds of their own bodies. A dialogue emerges between performer and participant, who is encouraged to recall memories associated with the body part being imprinted. The moulds become not only sculptural objects but negatives that activate memory, making past recollections tangible in the present. Bandages, buckets, and traces of spilled plaster contribute to the installation, centred around a table of body moulds – tangible and ambiguous offerings on a shrine-like surface.