Transferring Personal Archives into the Field of Cultural Memory: Reflection on the Making of the Exhibition “I Remember, Therefore I Am”

In this article, focusing on the experiences of women artists in the Soviet period in Latvia, we ref lect on the making of the exhibition “I Remember, Therefore I Am. Unwritten Stories: Woman Artists’ Archives” (Latvian National Museum of Art, 2020–2021) and, based on the material and knowledge collected, we identify a range of questions related to the personal memory and self-historicization (Badovinac, 2014) in the field of cultural memory. In 2020 as part of an international project “Not Yet Written Stories: Women Artists’ Archives Online” a group of researchers led by the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LCCA), including the authors of this article, began the research work for the exhibition entitled “I Remember, Therefore I Am”. While preparing the exhibition, we identified ideological, discursive and socio-economic factors that can shed light on to why the names and work of woman artists have been forgotten. The course of research revealed both the clash between the private and the public, the need for memory transfer and its possible types. In the spotlight of the research and exhibition were artists Rita Einberga, Laima Eglīte, Maija Eliase, Mudīte Gaiševska, Ruta Kreica, Rasa Kalniņa-Grīnberga and Olga Neimane-Kateņeva. The information obtained about the artists, their personal and family archives highlighted the following problems: the fragility of personal memory; memory transfer capabilities; a clash of different values and perceptions of art that changes the frame of the artist’s work and / or resists the creation of a new frame. The approach of personal and cultural memory, combined with insights into the study of ideological, discursive and social backgrounds – in particular the impact of changes in ideology and gender perceptions over time – makes it possible to highlight the main difficulties faced by researchers trying to supplement or rewrite history.