Soil hosts a diverse community of microorganisms, plants, animals, and minerals. Their interactions form a historical record of environmental conditions and biological activities. The concept of soil as a living entity involves recognizing the complex web of life it supports and how these interactions are recorded in soil structures. The project: Memory of Soil is about recognition and restoration of the forgotten, and making them not to be discounted. Our very perception of history is threatened with destruction, as a result of the breakdown of the continuity between past and future that gives meaning to our experience of the present. In order to recover the forgotten pasts, we need to fully understand other kinds of knowledge: the geo- and bio-stories. The project is designed to deal with four kinds of anarchives: 1. Political anarchives - which makes the project a civic infrastructure that takes into consideration the unveiled intra-actions of the soil and the decisions we need to make in the near future. 2. Scientific anarchives - that let us learn about lots of things that happened throughout the forgotten pasts. 3. Ecological anarchives - healing and caring for the scarred living beings during and after the excavation. 4. Memorial anarchives - a tribute to the exploited soil.
The aim is not to erase or overwrite the past memory of the soil, but to continue writing the unfinished archives of soils. The place once used to be a battleground with drills and black powders, now becomes a playground, a memorial, a place to learn, and an infrastructure for our future.
