"Contemporary traces of memory" is an elastic theme assigned to pieces by the Chinese Conceptual artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the photographer and filmmaker Matt Saunders.
But while some of the in-jokes are funny, and the audience seemed to enjoy them, most of the references felt like forced attempts to connect with a contemporary audience whose memory banks are like their ever-changing Facebook walls.
Results are discussed in relation to contemporary models of memory.
Having what has become a rich metaphor for the Sino-European exchanges, the Silk Road, as a common collective memory, contemporary Rome and Beijing are ideally positioned in the 21st century to play a key role in what the Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to call, in reference to the ancient trans-Eurasian routes, the New Silk Road.
Mr. Dorfman calls himself "post-postmodern," and his works weave spoken phrases, images of contemporary culture and memories into a sophisticated sweep of musical collaborations.
Mr. Grisham adds to these fond memories contemporary references that may give the grown-up reader the impression that he is getting the dirt on how things really work at the highest levels of government, finance and the legal profession.
News that the proposed "repurposing" of this building will turn it into "a home for innovative and popular contemporary music" prompts memories of all the things it has been host to: the piano and song recitals, the superb Purcell and Monteverdi operas, the great visiting orchestras and the maverick experimentalists – none of whom have been discernibly hampered by acoustic problems.
Edward Foss said that "there has never been a judge more venerated by his contemporaries, nor whose memory is regarded with greater respect and affection", and described him as "the great oracle of law".
The thriving, pre-Hitler German-Jewish community has left "a diffuse and attenuated memory" in contemporary Germans, though mansions and department stores once owned by Jews still stand.
Through Aug. 15, "Traces of Memory: A Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in Poland," with photographs by Chris Schwarz, founding director of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow.
