Looking back, looking forward.

 A common way to see the bigger picture of human existence is by digging into the past, where the foundations of self and collective identity are based. This retrospective exercise is like what happens with a palimpsest, a precious surface that is written, erased (but not totally), and written again and again. After a while, a “patina” appears, and it rhymes with the new writing. This rhyme between past, present, and future shows an idea of positive development, but also the repetition of mistakes or undesirable patterns and habits.

Throughout history, Oriental and Occidental civilizations have been “looking back” into the past as a way to deal with the uncertainty and void of the Future. The History seen as a non-linear but cyclic repetition of facts under similar circumstances is reflected in ideas such as stoicism, reincarnation, or “eternal return”. In the case of Occidental Abrahamic religions, despite being based on a linear time vision where beginning and end are very defined, they also function under cyclical ideas of time. Rituals and fests are remembering events from the past and revealing a desired „looking forward“ to a fulfilled future. 

How about looking back into the spaces of our childhood, or imagining ourselves inside family and friends‘ places and rooms that were somehow linked to our past? 

An interior space collects elements from a certain style according to the sociopolitical and geographical reality (objects, furniture, proportions, decorative patterns, colors…). It is also a place filtered from the outdoor public space and affected by the domestic weather produced in day-to-day life. It is a stage for private behavioural patterns apprehended and inherited from past generations.

Remembering these scenarios from the past, the selective memory starts to reveal itself. An unconscious self-shaped past appears. The irrelevant or non-fitting parts of our past experience are discarded, leaving place for the facts that resonate with our identity, taste, ideologies, and manners.

Because of the collective memory, we can also recognize ourselves in other unknown situations and spaces apparently unrelated to us. A furniture shape, a specific object, a certain decorative pattern… links us with our past, as it happens strongly with the olfactory sense, suddenly revealing a vivid reminiscence of someone or something that we experienced once.