Two memories of one mother's death
Years of the entire project implementation: process started in 2019 - completed in 2024

The books and the video, which co-exist with five installations made of handmade paper with different scents and materials associated with specific memories and rituals.

Five books with memories, size of each book: W: 9 cm x L: 12 cm x D: 1,5 cm
Video with sound, Full HD, 16:9, duration: 08:58 min / loop
*Video available on request.

Barbara Mydlak’s project Two memories of one mother’s death experimentally investigates the removal and modification of traumatic memories
by retrieval, reconstruction of events and conscious repetition of them, referring to cognitive psychology research on the reconsolidation of memories.

When she could return to her family home, many years after her mother’s death, in addition to the five books of memories,
Mydlak has created five handmade paper installations (each book belongs to one installation) and a video documenting them in her home.
She designed curtains constructed from thousands of single handmade fibrous pages, dedicated to specific rooms (ROOM 1, ROOM 2, ROOM 3, ROOM 4, KITCHEN) in her childhood house,
the layout of which is depicted on the cover of the small books.

Each curtain is made from specific materials associated with memories and rituals from a particular space, for example:
herbal mixtures, flowers, pine needles, burnt books mixed with candle wax, and mourning clothes,
all having the intense scents to trigger recollections (please see the documentation of each installation).

The books and video are part of Barbara Mydlak’s PhD completed at the Faculty of Painting and Drawing, Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland
Public defence of the doctorate: 28.06.2024, Jesuits' Gallery, Poznan, Poland
Dissertation Promoter: Prof. dr hab. Anna Goebel