Memory Coexistence: Where Time Converge

rom Tuesday to Sunday
Lounge, Immersive Room, Gallery

Memory Coexistence was born out of the City Digital Skin Art festival‘s many years of experience, a project that has promoted a vision of digital art as a large participatory and collective event, held in various cities across Asia and Europe. While the CDSA festival 2025 continues to bring digital art to urban public spaces, using the LED surfaces of cities – from October 1 to 5 it will be on screens in Milan – Memory Coexistence shifts this research to the museum space, thus creating a dialogue between the public and institutional environments.

The exhibition is therefore the result of this multi-year experience, which here takes on a non-public but equally participatory dimension. Starting with the curatorship. Yuelai Ruan, founder of the CDSA festival, brings an artistic vision developed over years of experimentation in digital public art. Susa Pop contributes her experience in new media and digital cultures, while Maria Grazia Mattei brings her specialization in cultural innovation and contemporary museography. Dominique Moulon, theorist of digital arts and intangible heritage, completes the collaborative curatorial approach.

Memory as an anthropological cornerstone in the technological age

Memory Coexistence presents works by collectives and individual artists.

The large number of works on display helps amplify the feeling of being able to experience a shared imagination through technological tools. There is a suspended but evident dialogue between all the works of the collectives and international artists involved. A conversation about what we share as human beings, regardless of cultural and psychological backgrounds. Personal details and geographical location are irrelevant. Memory Coexistence is the visual and auditory trace of a single universal voice, the human voice. Technology and new media allow us to bring it to life as never before.

The collective exhibition addresses the theme of memory as one of the anthropological cornerstones of the technological age. The thesis is that memory has a very private, intimate dimension. But it is also a universal set, which can be accessed intuitively. Looking at the works in Memory Coexistence, the amazement comes from actually practicing universality, grasping flashes of knowledge, understanding, and sharing in the work of a Chinese artist as well as that of an American artist of South American origin. Everything leads back to a silent conversation in which anyone can participate.

The four sections of the exhibition

The curatorial narrative is divided into four sections.

The first, “Sensory Resonance and Bodily Memory,” shows how the body memorizes through the senses, with installations and works that stimulate touch, hearing, and sight.

The second, “Intelligent Regeneration of Natural Memory,” explores the relationship between human memory and nature, using artificial intelligence to reinterpret environmental and biological data and create new stories about the connection between humans and nature.

The third section, “Construction of Historical and Cultural Memory,” focuses on how digital technologies help preserve and renew cultural traditions and practices, making them a heritage for future generations.

Finally, “Collective Emotions through Technology” analyzes how new technologies foster empathy and connections between people.