Memento Pudorem

Mixed media installation: 40 medical jars, preservation liquid, and various objects donated by participants. Editions: Unique, 2016- 2020.

The project Memento Pudorem is a compilation of research experiments focusing on psycho-cultural, legislative, material and archival aspects of the notion of shame. Drawing from Lacan’s Dialectical Materialism, Martha Nussbaum’s work Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law, and Brene Browns Shame Resilience Theory the project explores different tropes, protocols, conduct and materialization of intimate and collective relationships to the notion of shame.

One of the central elements of the project is a collection of over 70 objects of shame collected by artists between 2016-2019. The collection is comprised of donations made by participants from all over the globe. Each object acts as a shame-inducing trigger, association or shameful memory of a particular donor. The objects are accompanied by individual stories explaining anonymously the narratives and intention for the donations.

The Israeli Center for Digital Arts, Holon, Israel, 2016