On 10 December 2009, the Memory Clinic, a public event aimed at collecting family photographs, was organized at a former border crossing between Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy). The inhabitants of both cities were invited to go through their family albums, to select some photographs that had been shot in that border area and share their memories at a former customs post.
Cross-Border Memory Collection Actions
The purpose of memory-contributed actions is to create an open archive that evolves over time and becomes a kind of gift that we give to the people of both cities for generations to come. Much like a family album, designed by its incompleteness, it is an archive of memory in a constant process of creation and rearticulation. Namely, Nova Gorica (Yugoslavia/Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy) were separated not only by the boundaries between two countries and social systems but also by the boundaries between two comprehensions of the past. The border crossings that have separated us for years can now become meeting points that reflect the relationship between personal and collective memory.
Actions: Smuggler’s Confessional (2007), Memory Clinic (2009), Album of the City (2011), Memory Clinic Ljubljana (2012), Found Portraits (2013), Images of Oblivion (2014), Sewn Memories (2015), Portraits of Buildings (2015) and The Solver of Memory (2018). (Source: Anja Medved)