Memoria

“Classic” always has to do with time. Or rather: with enduring over time – that is, with memory, without which we would not remember what classic is, or what we consider classic. However, there is a not insignificant problem: memory is construction, it is dictated by a framework (historical, cultural, social – in a word: political) that determines it. Hence the distinction between individual memory and historical memory (or collective, as the original philosopher Maurice Halbwachs called it). The fact that memory is a powerful political device has become evident, in an arrogant way, over the last thirty years. It has gradually taken the place of history – at least regarding the recent past, that of the twentieth century.