The exhibition at Södertörn University Library explores nature's role in remembering traumatic pasts, using instant camera snapshots of 13 European memory sites. Linked to the commemoration of WWII's end on May 8, it examines collective memory manipulation and preservation.

Opening vernissage | May 8, 10.00-11.00 in the Library lounge

• Opening words and introduction by the author of the exhibition Olga Bubich.
• The ceremony is concluded by Hans Ruin, a Professor in Philosophy and a Programme Coordinator of the Memory Studies platform External link..

About the exhibition

The exhibition aims to offer reflections on temporal and spatial representation of traumatic pasts with a focus on the role of nature – as a witness, victim, and hostage of violence committed in the 20th century (during WWII and the Great Purge). This showcase, curated by Olga Bubich, explores these themes through a unique artistic lens.

In "Memory Landscapes", the natural surroundings of 13 memory sites across Europe are captured up close using an instant camera. The resulting "Instax" snapshots are then incorporated into larger artworks, serving as the basis for monoprints that borrow from their colour and geometric schemes. In this series, thus, nature is viewed as having a memory of its own – both symbolic and physical – as an agent capable of remembering.

"In our mind's eye, we are accustomed to thinking of the Holocaust as having no landscape," writes British historian Simon Schama in his paramount work "Landscapes and Memory", dedicated to researching the connections between these two phenomena. The first associations that one could have in this regard would probably be rather dark and gloomy – the mature that witnesses human suffering should be "emptied of features and colour, shrouded in night and fog, blanketed by perpetual winter, collapsed into shades of dawn and grey; the grey of smog, of ash, of pulverized bones, of quicklime." Thus, it is shocking, as Schama remarks, to realize that many concentration camps actually belong to a brilliant, vivid countryside with riverlands, picturesque lakes and avenues of poplar and aspen adorning their edges [1995, P26]

In the survivors' memoirs, nature is recalled as an element of existential paradox: yes, at times, it was perceived as comforting and promising hope, but most often – as indifferent. Seasons will change, and flowers will bloom regardless of people's presence, or, as Belarusian scholar Inha Lindarenka writes, in woods, "the law of the forest operates, according to which nothing leaves, it just gets replaced."

The sites commemorating the Nazism and Bolshevism victims, as well as literary and historical narratives around them, reflect not only the events themselves but also national myths and ruptures, archetypes, and ideological paradigms that have constructed remembrance. The architecture and iconography in these memorials embody specific political and cultural knowledge, crucially shaping future generations' understanding of those tumultuous times. However, the rise of the far-right movement across Europe, the ascendance of capitalism and wars — physical and mental — accompany the spread of amnesia and misremembering, with the risk of having the promise of 'never again' largely unfulfilled.

The exhibition "Memory Landscapes" will be shown at Södertörn University Library May 8-13, 2025 in collaboration with the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) and supported by Most Mobility Program (EU4BELARUS: MOST IV).

About the project

"Memory Landscapes" is the ongoing multidisciplinary project that combines archival research, museology, visual art, and writing on the vast topic of collective memories manipulation, nostalgia used by current authoritative regimes and/or populists as a tool of propaganda, and the role of museums and memorials at the sites of former concentration camps in traumatic memory preservation.