PHYSIOLOGY OF MEMORY

PHYSIOLOGY OF MEMORY
Exhibition participants: Anna Maria Brandys, Joanna Imielska, Magdalena Kleszyńska, Magdalena Rucińska
Gallery Curators‘Lab UAP, 12 Nowowiejskiego Str.
Opening: 4.12.2024, 19:00
4.12.2025 – 6.01.2025

Quoting from Wikipedia:

Memory is the ability to store and reproduce information, recall sensory impressions, associations, symbols, it is a basic function in nature recorded in the DNA genetic code. Four different phases can be distinguished in the creation and storage of memory: remembering all information; storing them in neurons responsible for storage; finding them later and getting them out of storage when needed; proper recognition of the type of information extracted. In clinical practice, the most important thing is the division of memory into two types: fresh memory – short-term memory and old memory – long-term memory. This division was made by William James, the founder of the American school of psychology, in his work on the foundations of psychology from 189.
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The physiology of memory is a very complex concept, but this time we do not subject it to scientific considerations, it is interpreted by 4 artists, filtered through the individual ability to remember what is perceived by the senses, what is created under the influence of strong stimuli and experiences, it is the memory that creates “bonds, similarity and identity” (O. Tokarczuk).

ACT I

Marek Bochniarz about the works of Anna Maria Brandys from the series Archive of memory forms – Delight: In the new project, the artist continues the theme of strongly experienced and celebrated motherhood, taken up in the “recycling” series Żyj (sz)Matko! (wordplay: Live Mother / cloth). This time she explores it in many different media – a collage, a display case, an envelope/leaf, an object – and deepens it with new, not always obvious content. Brandys engaged her daughters Marysia and Zosia to act as partners, challenging the traditional idea of ​​the so-called children’s art.

In line with the assumptions of post-development perspectives on this phenomenon, it negates the established scientific discourse, including this activity in hierarchical relations or pejorative evaluations and the assumptions of the educational system adopted in the last century.

The artist restores children’s art and sensitivity to a separate value and uniqueness, creatively using its poetics and carefully examining its characteristic features. It also poses an uncomfortable question about the reasons why people, as they grow up and submit to the rigors of social interactions, abandon creation, losing the individualism and enthusiasm associated with it, or the ability to directly express their experiences.

For Brandys, this project is also a mental journey into her own childhood and an expression of regret for her partially lost, rebellious sensitivity and courage. Art based on cooperation with her daughters becomes her way of perpetuating, processing and deepening the experiences of being a mother – just as Sarah Crinall did in Sustaining Childhood Natures, a subjective monograph devoted to the fleeting and difficult to capture everyday reality of motherhood.

ACT II

Joanna Imielska: For several years I have been implementing the project: Archeology from my drawer, its motto are the words of the French archaeologist L. Olivier, who claims that every present “basically consists of a palimpsest of all durations from the past that have been recorded in matter”. In the project I use old documents: diary entries, letters, magazines, books, catalogues, projects, maps, city plans, etc. The uniqueness of the collected material results from the qualitative features, age and nature of the paper used both as a material and as a carrier for the information written on it. content and meanings, which directly affects the subject matter and nature of the works produced. A written piece of paper is a bridge between the past and the future, it creates an opportunity to freely add further information, it gives you the courage to make a choice or you lose your comfort zone. The endless possibilities of reusing paper and its constant transformation in the creative process are amazing. Despite its fragility, paper can survive many lives, and its pages contain human stories and traces of presence. The found documents and the information they contain provide the opportunity to rediscover what has been forgotten, open the way to places not visited for a long time, and establish a metaphysical relationship with their authors.

Thanks to these documents, I recreated many images from the past, but at the same time I realized that memory does not have unlimited capacity and time for storing information, and that the opposite concept of memory is forgetting. These two opposing words: I remember and I forget – are at the same time a complement and a whole.

ACT III

Magdalena Kleszyńska: The implementation is the result of observing everyday life, a notation that refers to places and meetings, both those accidental moments spent together in a small community, and those planned when we share time with loved ones.

Shapes become a reflection of often (un)noticed moments of reality that arise while being there. Stains on the tablecloth, marks left by dishes, cups and glasses – all these forms determine dynamics and relationships. The traces become a record of a moment that happened once, but in fact continues constantly, cyclically, in various constellations, systems, places and with different people. These remains are traces of memory about a place, memories of events, a record and a map of moments.

ACT IV

Magdalena Rucińska: Although each of us has a body, we like to think of it as something separate (subordinate?) to the mind. After all, none of us would be tempted to equate the mind and the brain. Neurons may be visible, but what about thoughts and dreams? We are used to dichotomy. After all, matter and spirit belong to separate orders. On one side, transcendence, transcending matter, a look that “touches” more and further than the hands can reach. On the other, the body it inhabits takes root. I need space. Pregnancy.

I have had this image in my head since early childhood that – contrary to what we like to imagine about heaven – when buried in the ground I remain whole, with all my thoughts and dreams, and then I disappear. In thick black. As a child, I was afraid of this painting, but now I look at it more and more often with curiosity. I look at my loved ones and I am aware that the mind will not transcend brain disease. I can’t imagine some mysterious, safe enclave where memories can be hidden so that dementia would pass them by. I mean, I can, but I see it in the realm of fiction.

Memory does not transcend its physiology unless I fix it in a word, image or sound, but these too have some physical coating that eventually erodes. True memory is a stream of changes, including biochemical ones. A process from which I can sometimes draw images.  Some of them are older than me, others remembered by my own eyes. I can still feel their traces under my eyelids…