On Memories Dashun Li

1. Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau, 1933

2. Kurt Schwitters Merzbau 1933, reconstruction by Peter Bissegger 1981–3

I use to live in my grandfather’s house before it was demolished. I don’t have any pictures of it, just memories of my time occupying it as I grew up.

I shared this idea with my colleague Esther, and my grandfathers house reminded her of a favorite restaurant which she liked to go to as a child. We attempted to draw these two memories together from evidence of the buildings we could source online, and from what we could recollect as we conversed and shared our experiences.

The difficulties in this process of reconstructing from ancedotal evidence is reflected in the attembts to envisage the lost Merzbaus construction by Kurt Schwitters. While the reconstruction recalss the interior of this architectural space vividly, beyond what is in the photos canont be recalled and the construction is either supposition or left epty, exposing the partality of the construction.

The partiality of our project - the vague dimensions of the old house and more defined memories of the furniture from photos - established another memory. This memory is a reflection of our intimate conversation, and the prvate world we imagined.