Art and Memory: The Role of Visual Culture in Remembrance

Asuma Mariita Nchaga

Public Administration Kampala International University, Uganda

ABSTRACT

This study explores the profound relationship between art, memory, and visual culture, investigating how artistic practices mediate remembrance and shape collective identity. Drawing on historical, philosophical, and theoretical perspectives, it examines how memory is preserved, challenged, and reimagined through visual representation from ancient art and Renaissance iconography to modernist war memorials and digital media. Through multidisciplinary lenses, including film, performance, architecture, and digital technology, the project highlights how art serves both as a repository and a reactivator of cultural memory, especially in the face of trauma, loss, and historical discontinuity. Key case studies, including post-Holocaust remembrance, Isabel Allende’s narrative visuality, and the public representation of Salvador Allende, underscore the tensions between visibility and erasure, and personal versus collective memory. The research further evaluates the complexities of oral, tactile, and visual memory across different sensory experiences, emphasizing how image, matter, and space become active agents of remembrance. Ultimately, this work argues for a more inclusive and transdisciplinary understanding of memory, where visual culture not only commemorates but interrogates and transforms the way societies remember and engage with the past.

Keywords: Art and Memory, Visual Culture, Collective Remembrance, Holocaust Memory, Digital Remembrance, War Memorials, Memory Theory, Sensory Memory.

CITE AS: Asuma Mariita Nchaga: The Role of Visual Culture in Remembrance. IDOSR JOURNAL OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES 11(3):13-18. https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSRJAH/2025/1131318