Gorizia and its inhabitants before and after World War One. The last witnesses, now over 90 years old, remember this cruel time through the eyes of a child. Their stories, filled with curiosity and amazement, address the absurdity of war. The image of this former multi-cultural city is documented by archive footage, daily newspapers and articles.

16 September 1947 – The borderline was imposed between houses and streets, between fields and gardens – between people. It has divided their world in two and thus became both a barrier and a challenge. A small piece of world history through the eyes of a young girl that is conscientiously describing days of growing up during first years of Yugoslavia in her diary.

When the Primorska region was annexed to Yugoslavía, the town of Gorica (Gorizia) remained in Italy. In 1948, a new Gorizia began to be built on the Yugoslav side. The town in a meadow, on a swamp, on an abandoned cemetery by an old brickyard has stood for long years like a skeleton in the middle of an empty space alongside an immensely wide street, which led nowhere. People who were moving to the town from half over the country soon discovered that they found themselves in the ‘Wild West’ and that they would have to build Nova Gorica themselves. This documentary video essay tells the story of the origin of the town and asks questions about its identity and vision in a time when the border, which led to its creation, is losing its significance.

The documentary Binding Memories tells the story of a border territory of Slavia Veneta. It is a land characterized through the centuries by the presence of a border, but capable of preserving its unique character, despite the historical events. After 1947, this land was brutally split by the iron border between Italy and Yugoslavia, that is why today this territory is a space mostly left empty by its primal inhabitants. The history emerge through the intimate memories of the inhabitants of both sides of the border. While Europe is reopening the borders, the new forms of migrations and life modalities show up in a common territory.

A customs office building on the border between two towns, two countries, two social systems, two worlds, the Romanic and the Slavic, 65 years after the end of the war. On 20th of December with the entry of Slovenia into the Schengen area, Nova Gorica for the first time in its short history finds itself without border fences. The same night, this traumatic space transforms into a meeting place. Inside are placed a camera, a microphone, a computer and a curtain and people from both sides of the border start streaming in, bringing their stories and images, donating their contributions to the common holdings of memory. Donated memories and fragments of family and archive films tell how can two different realities find themselves simultaneously in the same place.

On 10 December 2009, the Memory Clinic, an event aimed at collecting family photographs, was organized at a former border crossing between Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorica / Gorizia (Italy). The inhabitants of both cities were invited to go through their family albums, select some photographs that were shot in this border area and share their memories on selected frozen moments. The future always starts here and now – stemming from very specific memories and very specific instances of forgetting.

In December 2011 the inhabitants of Nova Gorica/Gorizia were invited to donate to the Album of the City copies of photographs they had recently taken in their city and address the motives that made them capture the space in which they live in the lens. This resulted in a collection of reflections and observations that connects very different individuals into a community that cares what the conurbation of our future is to be like.

In December 2012, the Vžigalica Gallery as part of the My Streets Project, hosted the Ljubljana Memory Clinic – a recording booth that invited residents of Ljubljana to select photographs taken in Ljubljana from their family albums and share the memories brought up by these. The collection of photos and recorded memories is held at the City Museum, Ljubljana. It is serving as the basis for an online documentary project co-produced by the Kinoatelje Institute, Divja Misel Institute and MGML, to be presented in 2015.

In December 2013 the location of the former border crossing between Nova Gorica/Gorizia was the venue of the fourth memory-donation action, entitled Found Portraits. The inhabitants of both cities were invited to bring along photographs of fellow citizens they remember fondly due to their small acts of heroism from their everyday lives. Although these people may never enter the history books, they are remembered because of their actions and thoughts. For future generations, these memories will build into a subjective history of the two cities that exist in the same place.

Gorica in njeni ljudje pred in med prvo svetovno vojno. Zadnji, čez devetdeset let stari pričevalci, se tega krutega časa spominjajo skozi otroške oči. Njihova pripoved, prežeta z radovednostjo in začudenjem, spregovori o nesmiselnosti vseh vojn. Podobo nekdanjega večkulturnega mesta dokumentirajo tudi arhivski posnetki, dnevniki in časopisni članki.

Gorica, 16. september 1947. Meja se je vrinila med hiše in ulice, med polja in vrtove – med ljudi – in razdelila svet na dve polovici. Postala je pregrada in izziv. O času nastanka meje in letih življenja ob njej spregovorijo predvsem tisti, ki se še spominjajo nerazdeljenega goriškega prostora. Drobec svetovne zgodovine skozi oči male deklice, ki v svoj dnevnik vestno zapisuje vsakdan odraščanja v povojni Jugoslaviji.

Ob priključitvi Primorske k Jugoslaviji je Gorica ostala v Italiji. Na jugoslovanski strani so leta 1948 začeli graditi Novo Gorico. Mesto na travniku, na močvirju, na zapuščenem pokopališču ob stari Frnaži je dolga leta stalo kot skelet sredi praznega prostora ob neizmerno široki ulici, ki ni vodila nikamor. Ljudje, ki so se vanj selili iz vseh koncev in krajev, so kmalu ugotovili, da so se znašli na »divjem zahodu« in da si bodo Novo Gorico morali zgraditi sami. Dokumentarni videoesej pripoveduje zgodbo o nastanku mesta in postavlja vprašanja o njegovi identiteti in viziji v času, ko meja zopet izgublja pomen.

Dokumentarni film Sešivalnica spomina – Ricuciture di memorie raziskuje prostor Benečije, ki so ga stoletja prečile različne meje in je kljub grobim zgodovinskim pretresom uspel ohraniti svojo edinstveno identiteto.
Po letu 1947 je te doline nasilno razdelila železna meja, zato je danes v obeh državah ta prostor bolj ali manj izpraznjen. V pogovorih z domačini odkrivamo preteklost, kakršna je odsevala v usodah ljudi, ki so na svojih domovih vztrajali, in tistih, ki so od tam odšli. Danes, ko Evropa odpira meje, se v te doline ponovno vrača življenje tudi iz drugih koncev sveta.

Carinarnica na meji med dvema mestoma, državama, družbenima sistemoma, med romanskim in slovanskim svetom 65 let po končani vojni. 20. decembra 2007 z vstopom Slovenije v schengensko območje se Nova Gorica prvič v svoji kratki zgodovini znajde brez mejnih zapornic. Isti večer se ta travmatični prostor spremeni v prostor srečanj. V njem so nameščeni kamera, mikrofon, računalnik in zavesa, za katero je omogočeno nemoteno spominjanje. Ljudje prihajajo z ene in druge strani, s seboj prinašajo zgodbe in podobe ter jih podarjajo v skupni album spominov obeh mest. Zaupani spomini ter fragmenti družinskih in arhivskih filmov, posnetih na tem območju, pripovedujejo, kako se lahko dve različni realnosti istočasno znajdeta na istem mestu.

10. decembra 2009 je bila v hišici nekdanjega mejnega prehoda med Novo Gorico in Gorico organizirana druga spominodajalska akcija. Občani obeh mest so bili povabljeni, da pobrskajo po domačih albumih, izberejo nekaj fotografij, posnetih na tem obmejnem območju, ter delijo svoje spomine na zamrznjeni trenutek. Prihodnost vedno nastaja tukaj in zdaj – iz točno določenih spominov in točno določenih pozab.

Decembra 2011 so bili občani Nove Gorice in Gorice povabljeni, da v Album mesta podarijo kopije fotografij, ki so jih v zadnjem letu posneli v svojem mestu, ter spregovorijo o motivih, zaradi katerih so prostor, v katerem živijo, ujeli v objektiv. Nastala je zbirka razmišljanj in opažanj, ki zelo različne posameznike povezuje v skupnost, ki ji ni vseeno, v kakšnem somestju bomo živeli v prihodnje.

Decembra 2012 je bila v galeriji Vžigalica v okviru projekta Moje ulice postavljena Ordinacija spomina Ljubljana, snemalna kabina, v katero so bili občani mesta povabljeni, da v svojih fotografskih albumih izberejo nekaj fotografij, posnetih v Ljubljani, in z nami delijo spomine, ki jih te obujajo. Nastala je zbirka fotografij in pogovorov, ki jih hrani Mestni muzej Ljubljana. Na osnovi te zbirke, v koprodukciji Zavoda Kinoatelje, Zavoda Divja misel in MGML, nastaja dokumentarni spletni projekt, ki bo predstavljen leta 2015.

Decembra 2013 je bila v prostorih nekdanjega mejnega prehoda med Novo Gorico in Gorico izvedena četrta spominodajalska akcija z naslovom Najdeni portreti. Občani obeh Goric so bili povabljeni, da prinesejo fotografije someščanov, ki se jih radi spominjajo zaradi drobnih junaštev iz vsakdanjega življenja.
Čeprav morda nikoli ne bodo zapisani v zgodovino, ostajajo v spominu zaradi svojih dejanj in misli. Spomini nanje bodo za bodoče generacije gradili subjektivno zgodovino dveh mest, ki živita na istem mestu.