Like individual memory, which fills an individual’s life with content, so does “Collective Memory”, a concept developed by French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, organize the collective and transform group history through a set of images and narratives.

Museums function as halls and palaces of memory, accumulating material knowledge and cultural events in their archives. They hold the responsibility for the work of the curation and construction of that memory. An item in a collection is indicative of itself, the situation in which it was created, and its creator’s way of thinking, but together with its contemporaries, in various, thematic, periodic and material cross-sections, can attest to an entire society, shape collective memory and even dictate the present.

The exhibition Collective Recollection provides a glimpse into a collection’s creative processes and reveals questions that arise during the curatorial process. The new items on display show the different axes and ideals around which this gathering takes place. They are not only indicative of commonality, but also of the exception, of preservation considerations, and of the ethics and the question of ‘value’- what is the role of each item which is added to the collection and how will it influence the narrative that unfolds in the “Hall of Memory”?

The space design, as one large collection, containing various levels and storage boxes, echoes the collection room where the items are kept in boxes on shelves. A collection room is, in a sense, a hidden display, cataloged by a method aimed at ease of orientation. When the collection finds its way out of these shelves and is hosted in the gallery’s display, this is an opportunity to also reveal visual elements such as storage boxes and serial numbers from the collection room and give them the spotlight.

Photo Credit – Shay Ben Efraim