Closets of Memories – Dialogues and Co-operation
The project, “Closet of Memories”, was based on cooperation between representatives of homes for elderly people, library and ethnological research with financial support from the Swedish Government within their National Plan for the Elderly Policy. The aim was to develop opportunities for dialogues about memories and belongings across generations. The project started with interviews and workshops where the participants were encouraged to reconstruct memories concerning artefacts, which have been used in everyday life during the 20th century. The artefacts were to activate memories and bring out individual experiences, local events and national currents. In the next phase their narratives were the issues for collecting artefacts thematic to different Closets of Memories. When the closets were equipped the purpose was to organize recurring meetings for older people within the social care of the elderly and to create opportunities for meeting young adults and children. Both young and old have something to say. It is not only that the elderly should speak to younger people or relate memories from childhood. Persons who have lived long lives can relate their narratives to all phases of life. This concept has given the collections a structure related to diverse themes without chronological connections.
Closets of Memories and Museum Boxes are diverse, as a matter of fact, but they have some common features. The principal difference is that the Closets of Memories are focused on memories, self-biographical narratives and reflection, while the aim of Museum Boxes is basically to supply cultural historical knowledge. In the process of searching after memories artefacts are good connection links to other times, persons and environments. In this project it has been obvious that history is relevant in everyday practice nowadays and to encourage dialogues across generations, the collections have been composed in the sense of late modern theoretical items.
