Exhibition “Collective Memory is Everything I Don’t Remember: Moments We Share”

The artists’ practices explore the relationship between collective memory, identity, and individual perceptions of the past. Drawing on their own and their families’ experiences, the artists engage with the realities of the twentieth century, share personal stories, address socioeconomic issues, and examine public space. In Zuzeum’s Greenhouse and Sculpture Garden, newly created works are shown alongside projects never before exhibited in Latvia, spanning a wide range of media – from photography and analogue film to object-based installations.

 

The exhibition marks the conclusion of Czech curator Diana Kotmel Kněžínková’s doctora research project, Collective Memory Is Everything I Don’t Remember. The research maps the practices of Latvian women artists of the millennial generation, whose work, visual language, and communication strategies are shaped by, or emerge from, the phenomenon of collective memory. It also considers situations in which collective and individual memory intertwine, influence, and co-constitute each other. The exhibition at Zuzeum forms the second part of a larger project. The first – Memories That Are Not Our Own – brought together the same seven artists at H40 in Prague in spring 2026. The findings will be collected in a bilingual Czech–English monograph featuring perspectives from other East European visual art theorists and artists.