Map of Memory
Dushanbe

The Map of Memory is an archive of memories and stories from the residents of Dushanbe. Though neither the map nor the research aims to be comprehensive, both seek to preserve fragments of Dushanbe disappearing. The city is rapidly losing its capacity to function as a repository of collective memory – urban landscape doesn’t pay tribute to place attachments, to the emotional bounds and to people’s experiences. Now the true repository of collective memory is what people keep and preserve personally.

Map of Memory invites residents of Dushabe to share their stories and articulate what the city is – or once was – for them personally.

The project adopts microhistorical approach, treating rumors and everyday details – focusing on the memories as essential elements of collective history. While the physical city no longer preserves many of these memories, the virtual map can become a space where they are collected, preserved, and reactivated. We hope the project will help sustain people’s connection to the city.

Map from 1983

Please klick the button below and fill the form to make your contribution to our collective memory – the next few days your information will appear on the map.

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The map brings together several categories of memory.

Some are tied to places that still remain, while others commemorate what has disappeared.
Some memories belong to the twenty-first century; others reach back into the twentieth.