The gallery of Muzeum Śląskie is hosting the installation Counting Memories by the artist Chiharu Shiota, inside the spectator is immersed in a sea of desks and chairs in old-style wood.

For those who do not yet know her, Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese artist who lives and works in Berlin, known for her large installations that incorporate familiar objects inserted into networks of suspended wires. In Counting Memories, wires emerge from each desk, forming a dark cloud that consumes the entire upper part of the room with high ceilings; inside the tangled cloud we find numbers entangled.

The spacing of the desks offers visitors the opportunity to pass under the arches as they wander around the installation. In each of the nine desks, stacks of paper and pencils are available to viewers to answer suggestions such as “What number means to you and why”, “Numbers tell the truth” and “How many memories do you have?“.

“Each number defines us individually but also connects us universally. Numbers comfort us, we share dates that are important to us and help us understand ourselves. Our history is delineated by numbers. In this way, the woven string reflects our history, while the numbers represent the most significant dates we know”.

What’s your number?

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