Dissecting the dialectical relationship between remembering and forgetting, this programme focuses on the construction of collective memory within museums, libraries, and the digital realm. Through the works of four artists from France, Japan, and Singapore, ‘Remembering/Forgetting: The Porous Nature of Memory’ presents critical perspectives on collecting and the decision-making behind it. The selected shorts illuminate the complexity of choosing what to preserve and what to let go, digging deep into the utopian concept of preserving memory in the face of excessive randomised information cultured on the internet.

Thesaurus sets off a word trail from the word ‘remember’. The animation of words poetically illustrates the dynamic and interdependent relationship of remembering and forgetting. The decision to include or exclude individual memories from a national narrative confers responsibility and power, often tied to the agendas of state or private funding bodies.

All the Memory in the World spotlights the ambition of France to constitute the world’s most complete collection of cultural artefacts and books in the country’s museums and libraries. The work emphasises that a collection’s value lies not only in the sheer accumulation of knowledge but mainly in visitors’ active and individual usage.

Hikaru Fujii underscores the importance of this decision making in The Anatomy Classroom, using as a case study the Futaba Town Museum of History and Folklore’s response to the devastation of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Museum experts, artists, and intellectuals debate how the museum can be restored and how the traumatic experience can be incorporated into the reconstruction process.

Ho Tzu Nyen’s speculative The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia focuses on knowledge production in the digital realm, in which the unlimited amount of information online is curated by invisible machines. The film questions the agency, influence, truth, and future of mankind’s approach to memory making and preservation.