Social memory transgresses reality as its form fades, shifts, and fluctuates over time. The impermanent nature of memory often stands in contrast with the typified structures of commemoration. In the post-World War II era, war trauma is reconstructed in urban space in the form of secondhand grieving. A memorial, or memorial museum, is a repeated translation of “other’s” memory.
A large sheet of paper is transformed through creasing and folding, and the process becomes a memorial ritual. The folds create a fluid monumental-scape overlapped with voices of three generations of activists in the ‘comfort women’ movement. I aimed to transform the gallery, a conformative force, into a temporary anti-memorial space dedicated to ‘comfort women’ and their two decades of ‘memory’ activism. The audience becomes a collaborator in others’ memories by entering, listening and feeling.