Three years ago, we opened [non] museum of Architecture as a community space for building like-minded communities, engaging them in alternative narratives, and creating interdisciplinary exhibitions that critically reconsider the themes of collective memory, the right to memory, the right to heritage, architectural heritage preservation, repression, and memory of place through the prism of architecture.
Over the past three years, we have implemented several major exhibitions initiated by community members, who later became museum residents, and with whom we have implemented several large-scale public projects and events. For three years, we have operated as a public space and library, initiating and participating in live dialogues with visitors, some of whom became project participants. For three years, we involved interns, volunteers, created worlds, learned from each other, and interacted with professionals from completely different fields, such as directing, theater, architecture, art, illustration, web development, but united by common civil values.
Over three years of work on this experimental platform, we have been able to test different formats of engaging the civic community, [not] museum practices, and models of institutional development of an independent [non]museum platform, engaging visitors in dialogues about architectural heritage, art, collective memory, and much more.
The team of the [non]museum of Architecture, having been in the physical format of an open public space for three years, managed to fulfill one of the project's most important tasks: to reveal the memory of the place (the former NKVD building) through architecture and dialogues with the community and visitors.
The [non]museum of Architecture, through the format of "Exhibition as Dialogue," invited visitors to share their personal stories through conversations with mediators, thus weaving the narratives of visitors into a single collective canvas of memory, in a place designed for its destruction.
This exhibition emphasizes the importance of collective memory, reflection on what happened, even if it is painful and not always easy. To heal a traumatic past, it must be acknowledged and thus let go.
Collective Memory
The [non]museum of Architecture was conceived as a platform where visitors could share personal narratives and collectively comprehend historical events through the prism of the "genius of the place" (in this case, the former NKVD building), as well as view them from different perspectives.
Exhibition visitors, especially those whose families were affected by the repressions, noted that the format and mediation of the exhibitions inspired them to delve deeper into their family history, the history of their family tree (Kazakh "shezhire").
The "Tree of Memory" installation is about how our personal family histories are closely intertwined with collective history and memory.
One of the basic practices of folk memory is considered "shezhire" (Kazakh). In Soviet times, this practice transformed and continues to be reinterpreted now. We invite you to join this collective experience through the "Tree of Memory" installation.
