Installation with five slide projectors and limestone blocks, 2017

Sedimentation of Memory is an installation with seventeen limestone blocks, five synchronised slide projectors displaying 400 drawings, accompanied by a booklet. Following a disclosure agreement with former Nato employees, Sedimentation of Memory features drawings based on the private archives that tell the story of memory and forgetting, simultaneously tracing the genealogy of power as it as inscribed in the dark corridors of the former limestone quarry in Maastricht. 

Watch full video documentation by visiting this link. 

Kodak terminated the production of the 35mm carousel slide projectors over a decade ago. Now considered obsolete, the slide projector has come to evoke the specific section of the past. During the Cold War, the projector became widely used in the West. The mechanics of it reminds us that behind every image there is a projection, made not only of light rays hitting the surface but more importantly of an idea that is read and spread upon it.

The five Kodak carousel slide projectors are synchronised, creating a spatial composition that binds different aspect of the location together. The limestone blocks were used as a building material. Some of the blocks are inscribed, or drawn upon, while others are made hollow by the insects that found their shelter in the porous rock.

Sedimentation of Memory investigates the interrelation of memory and history by looking into the problem of the representation of stories that were once classified. Based on documents, images and maps this work brings to light little known stories about the military exercises in Cannerberg, during the Cold War.  

Sedimentation of Memory is an installation with seventeen limestone blocks, five synchronised slide projectors displaying 400 drawings, accompanied by a booklet. A short story 'Je vint me een zwartkijker? In deze duisternis?' is written by Stijn Verhoeff, translated by Nat Muller and the booklet is designed by Bardhi Haliti. The short story is published on De Gids website.