Site-Specific Art as a Tool for Memory Recycling: A Case Study of an Abandoned Factory

This article examines the former Ursus factory, which served as the focus of site-specific art activities from 2011 to 2019. The artistic practices discussed here draw on several overlapping dimensions of memory: place, the collective sphere, and the body. Designed specifically for this location, these initiatives engaged with the site’s historical past and both its former and current uses, while also incorporating personal, physical, visual, and sonic connections. Exploration of the factory grounds was inspired by the local culture and responds to issues faced by the surrounding community. The central question is how an artist works with memory in the context of site-specific art. The analysis also considers the relationships between the artist, the space/place/factory, memory, and both direct and indirect participants. This study is rooted in qualitative research methods, including indirect observation, in-depth interviews, analysis of existing documents, netnography, and a site visit to the Ursus factory. The analysis assumes that factory space is not something fixed and immutable. It contains content in the form of the experiences of a given collective, individual material and mental elements of the past, which can become matter, subject to secondary processing, based on processes of storage, sorting, processing, and reuse by artistic means.