“Repairing Memories:
Embroidering a family archive”

Together with Marina Sazonenko, participants will embroider archival photographs from the “Table of Oblivion” as part of the programme accompanying Kristina Syrchikova’s exhibition “Native Spots”.
Prints no longer wanted in family archives ended up at flea markets, and with them the lived lives of unknown people; in Kristina Syrchikova’s exhibition “Native Spots” they became the “Table of Oblivion”. The people in them are being erased from family memory, but through embroidery we can keep their images in collective memory.
Working with family photographs through various practices, including textiles, is not new. As in Marina’s previous workshops, participants work with photographs to discover unobvious connections and hidden details, immerse themselves in family history and find the origins of their own identity.
In a creative atmosphere, we will embroider family photographs of people unknown to us while recalling our own pictures and stories. We will examine the details of the images and draw parallels with photographs from our own albums; stitch by stitch, we will help the people in them remain in memory. Through embroidery we will pay tribute to “forgotten ancestors” in the broadest sense. We will work with collective memory, letting the fates of the people from the “Table of Oblivion” pass through us bit by bit and drawing parallels with our own lives.

Marina Sazonenko — graphic designer, artist, childhood researcher, educator and author of creative programmes for children and adults. In 2022 she received a research-educator diploma from the HSE Graduate School of Art and Design. She currently heads development at the Fabrika Centre for Creative Industries and collaborates with YAMUZEY (Kineshma), Textil (Yaroslavl), the Gulag History Museum, the Museum of Moscow, the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, the Nekrasovka Library and others.

📸 Evgenia Aleynikova
Participation is free