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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 APRIL 2025 3 ART Memoirs from the Future: An exploration of future lost souls KYLIE AQUILINA "I pulled him by his arms and shoulders — and finally, he moved; rigid and ice-cold, he got up and staggered after me on legs like stilts: click-click.' 'Memories of the Future' (1927-1929) by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887-1950) A gravedigger attempts to guide a conscious dead man and tries to help him find rest to be buried. He is the main storyteller of the short story by Krzhizhanovsky titled 'The Thirteenth Category of Reason' (1927) which formed part of the book 'Memories of the Future'. As the gravedigger searches for a proper burial of the walking dead man people called him a lunatic and ignore him. The gravedigger stated 'Well, I un- derstand, people are busy and rushing about with their absent eyes, what do they care that a person hasn't been properly buried?' The description of the narra- tor is a fitting picture of Rod- erick Camilleri's dystopian etchings and woodcuts in his exhibition 'Memoirs from the Future'. His works particularly his woodcuts depict silhouettes of figures walking in barren land where the figures seem to be consumed by nature represent- ed by the choice of colourless carvings. His morphing of fig- ures with nature seems to form human-scapes where forms are only distinguished by their carved line. This formal quali- ty and the eerie atmosphere of the works recalling lost souls is reminiscent of Krzhizhano- vsky's reflection upon reading Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' (1781): "Before it had all seemed so simple: things cast shadows. But now it turned out that shadows cast things, or perhaps things didn't exist at all." The figures in Camilleri's works echo the contemplation in search of reason where many of the figures seem to be in-be- tween, alive and dead at the same instance, like lost souls in Dante's purgatory. The figures on their venture on barren land seemingly lost are perhaps lamenting loss, not only because of the barren land but also the loss in war symbolised by the gas masks on the faces of some of the figures. This detail and the contrast of colour in the woodcut forming the landscape recalls the prints by Otto Dix particularly his 'Assault Troops Advance under Gas' (1924) which formed part of a series of etchings titled 'Der Krieg' (The War). These depict the atrocities he experi- enced first-hand during WWI as he served as a soldier. How- ever, while Dix presented sol- diers ready to attack, Camill- eri's work depicts figures upon stilts lost in a barren land. The gas masks worn by the figures suggest the possible toxicity of the barren land perhaps caused by atomic bombs which de- stroy nature in its wake. The tradition of walking on stilts crafted from wood is practised by the Banna Tribe in Ethio- pia to protect themselves from dangerous creatures as they walk on the land which they are dependent on to survive by farming and hunting. Apart from this reason, stilt-walking forms part of their rituals also symbolised by the white paint- ed patterns on their chest. The texture in Roderick Camilleri's woodcut prints recall these painted lines, and the carving seem to engulf and form the works. Additionally, while the woodcuts depict stilt-walkers on barren land, the choice to print the woodcut on algae pa- per is an intriguing detail since it pays homage to nature while the algae is a type of aquatic or- ganism without roots like the nomads themselves. However algal blooms serve as a warning since some types are harmful for nature. The title of Camilleri's ex- hibition 'Memoirs from the Future', suggest that the artist had somehow time-travelled into the future and seems to be recalling memories. This is in parallel to the time-travel- ling protagonist Max Shterer from the book 'Memories of the Future' by Krzhizhanovsky which was written after the Russian Civil War. Camilleri's work serves as a window into the future where the feeling of being lost suggested by the procession-like walking fig- ures, suggests that the future might be barren. While people are currently living in contem- porary times, they could still experience the feeling of no- mads walking without a sense of direction and purpose. The gas masks are suggestive of the ongoing wars which might continue as well as the ruinous barren land which could be the result of climate change and atomic bombs. Memories are formed from the remembrance of something which is lost – the past... Witnessing Camilleri's works makes the viewer con- sider how present actions can ultimately affect future gener- ations because the present is tomorrow's history while to- morrow is today's immediate future. The exhibition 'Memoirs from the Future' by Roder- ick Camilleri is held at Muża from 14 March 2025 till 20 April 2025.