"I did not add any content to the existing context, for I did not want to build any new constructs. I only pointed at a certain gap, I created a topography of memory which does not exist."

 

The collective memory, trauma and history are the basic components of the equipment of the project I Found It Somewhere, But I Cannot Find It. It consists of two parts: a sound one and drawing one. Artist records the statements of passers-by in the town Martin on the audio track placed within a dark corridor. On the front plane of the panels there are drawings of the missing memorial plaques. The author asks the people whether they can remember the location of the former synagogue, urging them to indicate the place of the holocaust memorial plaque. Through questioning people, there were generated several sites, where the commemorative plaque is supposed to be placed (municipal library facade, facade of literary museum, around the national cemetery, surrounding of the theater...) On the designated sites, artist created ephemeral traces of removed plaques - which were later transferred to drawings by using the  frottage technique. 

The individual memory is completely opposite. Collective memory is constructed; it does not come into being spontaneously and it does not vanish just so, in the draught of time. To preserve the memory of any traumatic event within a collective, it is necessary to actively work on it. It is called the "figures of recollection (psycho-catharsis) and it includes memorials, manifestations (demonstrations), common collective activities. The author rambled around Martin demanding answers, but no one knew the correct ones.  The absence of an organised recollection and reminiscence is, perhaps, the focal motif on artist's work and also fits quite well in contemplating on the memory within the memory studies.