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Memory without History (Memorial to Lida Clementisova)
installation (Clematis Hybride flowers in pots, slide projection/wallpaper)
2009-2011
Memory without History is part of a series of memorials entitled Far from You which are dedicated to an unknown woman and her unconditional love for her husband. These memorials are conceived as instructions, processes or ephemeral monuments.
"The logic of history itself, of winners and losers, of heroes and victims, is distinctively masculine. Memory on the other hand is different - unlike history it is not a privilege of the few and the dominant; it is free of ideology, alive, human and vulnerable.
The Memorial to Lida Clementisova is an attempt to revive the memory of a woman who remained unacknowledged by history. Lida Clementisova was the wife of Vladimir Clementis, a Slovak politician and a prominent member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, victim of the Stalinist "purges" in the 50-ties. She and her husband were both imprisoned for 2 years and tortured before Vladimir's execution.
The memorial consists of planting creeping plants (Clematis Hybride) around monuments of all kinds. Eventually, the plants will grow all over the monuments, covering them with flowers and making them temporary invisible. Any existing monument can thus become a memorial to Lida Clementisova.
Each visitor is encouraged to take a pot with the responsibility to plant the Clematis flower next to a monument, and thus perform a victory of memory over history."
(text by Dessislava Dimova)
