Eleana Niki Konstantellos André – The Art of Memory « burn magazine

Memory is the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. Dementia is a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Experience changes in their mood or behavior. Dementia can be caused by Alzheimer’s disease or a series of strokes. This project started in 2015 when my grandfather, Alfonso, passed away. He and my grandmother, Esther, had shared their life together. I started photographing her to understand her grief. It would be extremely difficult for her to overcome this event as she was suffering from an important memory and eyesight loss. It was my way to accompany her and get to know her better. I found that in 1998 she had an important pool accident which led her to a severe memory loss. The family archive endowed me lots of photos, poems, diaries, and letters. I discovered her love, her dreams, and, her fears. The mechanisms of the memory and the materials I had found became detonators in a creative process: the reconstruction of my roots and my grandmother’s history.