As If We Never Remember, Single channel video 21min 9sec, wood, cardboard, PVC floor mat, digital print on paper.
 

 

 

As If We Never Remember is part of Lee Mok Yee’s ongoing research into “Chineseness” in Southeast Asia, exploring how Chinese identity continues to adapt and transform across different historical, cultural, and political environments.

Developed during an artist residency in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, the work brings together conversations with local Chinese communities across different generations and backgrounds. Beginning with everyday topics such as family, work, language, and food, these conversations gradually reveal personal memories of migration, political change, and experiences that have been passed down, forgotten, or deliberately left unspoken.

Rather than reconstructing historical events, the artist explores how history remains present in everyday life, particularly through speech, pauses, silences, and bodily gestures.

The installation combines video interviews with locally sourced materials, including cardboard and kayu cerucuk. Inspired by local warung langsat, the temporary, hand-built shelter creates a safe and intimate space for audiences to sit, listen, and engage with these personal stories.

As If We Never Remember reflects on the relationship between history and memory, suggesting that while historical truths may become difficult to distinguish, memory carries a different kind of truth, one that remains embedded in the body and emerges through everyday life.

Concept, videography and editor: Lee Mok Yee
Research: Budiarto Yosdi Nagtidjan, Lee Mok Yee
Translate: Budiarto Yosdi Nagtidjan

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