In his novel Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust defines the notion of involuntary memory by describing how remembrance deeply engraved in the past, evoked by the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea, occupies the narrator's present reality without his conscious effort. Referencing Proust's 'episode of the madeleine' with its title, the project Tea Soaked Madeleines explores my family's emotional history in order to trace the line that threads our past and defines our present. As stimuli of involuntary memories, mundane objects acquire symbolic significance while serving as metaphorical representations of the structure of memory. Internal relationships and personal tragedies interweaved with generational traumas of several wars make the narrative layers of this work and reveal the intricate connections between past and present.

Add

Josip Artuković