© 2026
Map of Memory
Dushanbe
Dushanbe
remember
Map of Memory is a long-term artistic and research project that aims to build a growing participatory archive of personal Dushanbe built through memories and microhistorical narratives.
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, as memory and familiarity remain crucial for forming social ties and inclusive development.
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, as memory and familiarity remain crucial for forming social ties and inclusive development.
Map from 1983
Everyone is welcome to share their memories or tell us more legends about Dushanbe.
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.
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.
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.
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.
