Only Language Knows
participatory sound and light installation

We use to see our memories as something deeply rooted in reality. However, their relationship to reality is very complex. The performance is an exploration of the idea of an “artificial memory.” Participants can recall an event they may have never lived.

more about the project︎︎︎

A memory is not a mere imprint of a past reality. Although memories are based on reality, they are in fact fictions.  In Only Language Knows, the participants embrace the blurry boundaries between memory, fiction and reality. The consequences of such transformation of our understanding of memory are fundamental to our societies, legal and political systems.  We tend to believe our memories. Memories are seen as reliable. In courtrooms they can change everything. They can overthrow evidence or even decide about human lives. Any reality-check of memories can easily lead to misleading conclusions.




Only Language knows is a participatory performance, taking place in between the participants’ memories and a real space. By summoning common memories and images and organizing them in a carefully designed succession, the participants can recall a specific event - a car accident. The participants experience the creation of an artificial memory on themselves.

Once they have understood the mechanisms through which memories are created, stored and evolve, they are facing decisions questioning the value of their memories. But would how they decide? Would they decide or would they let the fear of illusive memories silence their voices? How do they behave once they understand that their memories may not be true? How does it transform their perception? Should they keep their memories for themselves so as not to alter the others’ perception of reality? How can they reconstruct events based on memories? How can they tell the imaginary from the real?

^{The participants are equipped with light devices, allowing them to have a physical experience of the images in their minds.}


A project developped at Studio ALTA, Prague, Czech Republic and supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.