Amnesia Songwei Wang

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), directed by Joseph Markiewicz

10 SANNA Sejima and Nishizawa 1994

In the film “Suddenly Last Summer”, Catherine has always been troubled by the cause of her husband’s death, and those relevant memory fragments have always appeared in her mind, just as the sound of the special flute always reminds Catherine of these fragments. Sadly, Catherine has been tortured by these memory fragments, and she can’t forget or find a complete memory, because she has lost her memory, But that pain is complete.

In our design, fragments from all over the world are transported to this transfer station, but because the capacity of the warehouse is limited (even if its volume is amazing), those previous fragments will be destroyed. This is like in our life, we will be constantly exposed to new things. Those things that happened in the past will be fragmented and gradually forgotten due to the limited capacity of people’s brains. Even if people find those fragments from all over the world in the ‘transit station’, they will only struggle because they can’t recall the complete memory. No matter those tourists who find fragments or those who do not find fragments, they have permanently lost those memories. Therefore, this building is not a “lost and found office of memory”, but an “amnesia exhibition hall”.

In the precedent, 10 Sanaa inspired us to reflect that new fragments are constantly sent to the building through huge warehouses and a continuous stream of trucks to transport goods. The building Amnesia Exhibition Hall was afraid that it could not hold all the fragments, and the tourists were afraid that they would miss them, just as Catherine was afraid that she would never think of those memory fragments again. Unfortunately, the building will eventually destroy those fragments that cannot be accommodated. People will eventually miss the fragments they are looking for, and Catherine will never remember her lost memory. Just like the emotion we always want to convey in Anton Studio, we are always anxious and struggling for those uncontrollable and unknown things. Unfortunately, we can’t change them in the end, and they are still happening...