📚 Zuzeum Art Museum invites you to the launch of the book Collective Memory Is Everything I Don’t Remember.
📅 October 2 at 6 PM
🎟️ Free entrance
🗣️ The event will take place in English
The book and the exhibition Collective Memory is Everything I Don’t Remember: Moments We Share, on view in the Zuzeum Greenhouse, are part of a broader project by Czech curator and researcher Diana Kotmel Kněžínková exploring the relationship between collective memory, identity and personal experience through the practices of seven Latvian women artists of the millennial generation.
The first exhibition in the project, Memories That Are Not Our Own, featuring works by Ieva Balode, Vika Eksta, Ieva Kraule-Kūna, Liene Pavlovska, Diāna Tamane, Krista Vindberga and Elīna Vītola, took place in spring 2026 at the H40 cultural space in Prague. The exhibition at Zuzeum forms the second part of a larger project. Drawing on their own and their families’ experiences, the artists address the realities of the 20th century, socioeconomic issues, public space, and the ways collective memory shapes our individual perception of the past.
During the event, the editor and exhibition curator Diana Kotmel Kněžínková will introduce the development of the project, the research behind it and her work with the artists. She will also speak about the publication, which brings this multi-year research process together within the broader context of Eastern European visual art and collective memory.
To conclude the event, Diana and the participating artists who are present will invite visitors to join them for a tour of the exhibition.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Collective Memory Is Everything I Don’t Remember
Edited by Diana Kotmel Kněžínková
English and Czech, 368 pages
To what extent is our memory truly our own, and to what extent is it shaped by the stories, images and experiences we share with others? What role does collective memory play in this process, and how does it shape what we remember—or, conversely, forget—as individuals and as a society?
The monograph explores the broad subject of collective memory as a multilayered phenomenon shaped by changing historical, social, cultural and technological conditions. It consists of two interconnected parts. The first presents the doctoral research of the book’s editor, Diana Kotmel Kněžínková. Conducted between 2023 and 2026, the research examines the artistic practices of seven Latvian women artists of the millennial generation: Ieva Balode, Vika Eksta, Ieva Kraule-Kūna, Liene Pavlovska, Diāna Tamane, Krista Vindberga and Elīna Vītola.
The second part brings together five scholarly contributions by international theorists and artists working in the field of visual art in the Eastern European context: Anna Vartecká (Slovakia/Czechia), Ieva Astahovska (Latvia), Kvet Nguyễn (Vietnam/Slovakia), Darja Lukjanenko (Ukraine) and Jiří Philippe Janda (Czechia).
The publication was produced with the support of the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem.
The exhibition Collective Memory is Everything I Don’t Remember: Moments We Share is held with the official support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic.
*By attending the event, you agree to photo and video documentation and the use of these materials for publicity purposes. You have the right to object to being photographed or filmed, or to your child being photographed or filmed, by informing the photographer or videographer during the event.