The Room of Mnemosyne by Alessandra Calò was created on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Italian-German Agreement on the Recruitment and Placement of Italian Workers in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Invited by the Italian Cultural Institute of Cologne for an artistic residency, the artist chose to draw inspiration from the DOMiD archive – a living repository safeguarding objects, stories, and testimonies of migrants since the first generation – to reflect on the importance of archival materials in relation to historical events. Through a public call, new memorabilia and anecdotes were gathered alongside interviews with the second and third generations, sparking reflections on the complex experience of migration and integration by men and women who can no longer be defined as Gastarbeiter.
The artistic project – named after the Greek goddess of memory – is a poetic journey that invites us to reflect on the value of objects and their ability to preserve emotions, memories, and identities, while conveying both the complexity of the Italian migratory experience in Germany and the contemporary relevance of its legacy.