Amnesia

Curatorial statement

Amnesia is an exhibition within an exhibition at the museum of the Herttoniemi Manor. The history of the estate dates back to the 16th century village of Hertonäs, with the death of the last proprietor of the estate Johan Bergbom during the civil war leading to its transformation into a museum. In the exhibition contemporary artworks engage the museum’s permanent collections in a dialogue, writing alternative histories of the local landmark.

Drawing from philosopher Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology the exhibition reflects on lost futures that to this day influence our society. The exhibition poses the question: what role does the act of forgetting play in history writing and memory institutions? Threads and storylines that do not fit the narrative are actively forgotten when compiling stories of heroic individuals, landmarks or nation states.

The contemporary artworks of the exhibition represent acts of misremembering. They engage in speculative history writing and purposefully misrepresent events of the past. These false memories can however encourage us to explore history through a different lens. They can reveal the structures of class hierarchy embedded in the architecture and the fruits of colonialism that still bloom in the gardens.

History never leaves us. It echoes in the heritage around us, transforming Hertonäs Manor into a haunted house of sorts, where rather than spirits, it is histories lived and lost that taunt the visitors. Amnesia transforms the estate into a museum of forgetting.