Souvenir is the French term for memory, which we borrowed in German especially for a travel memory. The archetypal souvenir of a trip to Russia is the matryoshka. The matryoshka is also a secret holder, which holds many faces and stories in itself.
During the preparation of From Russia with Love, I often came back to the question of how far a memory is included in another memory. And yet another one would be encapsulated in a memory: one remembers remembering one, the next, and again the next. One detail follows the other. In the process, an overall picture is completed by what one remembers.
Or you get into the maze of memories in completely different corners and angles.
The souvenirs for the matryoshkas as a group, their entities juxtaposed, as a sculptural form. It may take some time to realize their form when looking at the sculptures.

2015