My Your Memory

My Your Memory is an exhibition that raises questions about what we should remember and how within our fast-changing social systems.

Artists: Akram Zaatari, Andy Warhol, Anri Sala, Cecilia Vicuña, Cyprien Gaillard, Herman Kolgen, Hong Soun, Lim Yoonkyung, Louise Bourgeois, Mioon, Park Hyesoo, Song Joowon, Yang Junguk

Looking back, we can see that we have changed all too quickly. For instance, the accelerating developments in digital technology during the 21st century have enabled us to perform countless jobs at speeds and distances that would have been unimaginable in the past. It was thought that this would bring about innovative convenience for all humankind—but it ended up creating an ironic state of affairs, where those who fail to adapt quickly to the new digital systems are winnowed out.

More recently, the world has been brought to an instant halt by a virus. We had battled viruses numerous times in the past, but this one laid bare the limitations of people and systems in a way that left all of humankind flummoxed. State policies changed from one day to the next, and for a time we breathlessly struggled to adapt quickly to social systems that had immediate impacts on our personal everyday experience.

What sort of standards should we adopt for our lives today, living as we do in a time when yesterday’s information and way of life are no longer accepted? With our times changing so quickly, have we forgotten how to reflect on and contemplate our own way of life? Is it not times of confusion and turbulence just like these that require us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves: What should we be remembering?

The exhibition starts from an examination of phenomena where our own memories become mixed and overlaid with those of others. It considers who the actors are who occupy personal memory, and the standards by which information is remembered or forgotten. It also asks about the way in which our current memories manifest—formed as they are through selective editing from vast stores of past information—and how future memories will take shape, based on the imprint that we leave today. By considering what information we are leaving behind now and imagining how future generations will reconstruct that surviving information to remember us today, this exhibition can hopefully be an opportunity to reflect on our own societies and ways of life.