Mat

Memory operates not only as the foundation of the present and as a motivating force, but also as a mode of cognitive engagement with reality. In its metaphysical dimension, memory functions as a necessary process through which experience is structured and reconfigured. This process frequently extends beyond direct lived experience, entering the realm of the imaginary by translating, displacing, and constructing events that may be unknown or never personally lived.

Personal memory is continually shaped by external sources such as archival documents, historical knowledge, and testimonial evidence, particularly in relation to events that precede one’s own lifetime. Film footage shot on celluloid during the Second World War, often recorded in locations directly affected by the conflict, at times reveals landscapes and social situations that appear disconnected from the surrounding violence. Images of leisure, gathering, or unaltered natural environments coexist with the historical reality of war, producing a tension between representation and context.

When still or moving images lack clearly identifiable temporal, spatial, or informational markers, they resist fixed attribution. In the absence of contextual data, such images may be perceived as transferable across subjects, places, and historical moments. They thus operate as sites of “other” memory—spaces where individual recollection, collective history, and imaginative projection intersect.