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Memory Islands

Video

Conception, performance, video : Chloe Bellemere & Inga Galinyte

Activated at Prehistoric Village of Portella

2023

The olive tree, with its millennia of existence, has the ability to regenerate after periods of devastation such as fires or droughts. This resilience and longevity endow it with the symbolism of immortality. Yannick Haenel writes in "Jan Karski" (2009): "The olive tree carries within it the eternity of days gone by. It bears witness to the earth's memory, to the passage of centuries as a slow transformation, preserving the scars of time in the softness of its leaves."

On the heights of the prehistoric village of Portalla, on the Sicilian island of Salina, an olive tree stands against the vast sky. In the background, two evanescent silhouettes sketch and blend local inhabitants’s memories and mythological figures that transcendes human lives.