Monument of a Memory of a Monument

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Monument of a Memory of a Monument *

Soundscape Composition and Spoken Word Piece

2025



Dispersing oneself in search of past selves. A memory of something that did not happen, yet appeared in the eye of the mind. Behind closed lids, on a soft floor, the past unfolds—not as fact, but as sensation. This work attempts to construct a monumental sonic memorial around a past that may or may not have existed. It manifests through sound, improvisation, and voices reading my written, lived memories in words—an auditory imprint of what I saw when looking back in time. By looping memory, time, and sound, this piece becomes a spoken-word soundscape composition—a radical attempt to make sense of a sublime bodily experience. It questions monuments and ideologies, situating them within a world that oscillates between control and chaos. The vastness of the uncontained mirrors the strength of an individual’s willpower. We hold so much within us and are connected in ways we do not always acknowledge or expect. The concept of nostalgia of Svetlana Boym, where she discusses the tension between restorative and reflective longing, resonates throughout this work. It does not seek to reconstruct an idealised past but instead reflects on its fractures, its echoes, and the instability of memory itself. The monument in this piece is not fixed; it is transient, ephemeral, existing in the act of remembering and the shared experience of listening. It is an attempt to articulate what cannot fully be grasped—an offering of sound and speech to the uncontainable.

Participants:

Viktoria Nikolova - text, vocals, processing
Alexandra Shkodrova - vocals and processing
Julie Hasfjord - voice
Phoebe Kirrage - voice
Leah Place - cello
Julia Fuello - voice
Uroš Ðurđević - voice
Felician Erlenburg - voice

Premiered for On Air On Site 2025 - onaironsite.com/artists/viktoria-nikolova-2

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