Martín Bollati, Hermes / Unesco, 2023

Hermes/Unesco is an imaginary collection of objects born from the artificial intelligence-mediated collision of photographs of pieces belonging to the official UNESCO heritage.

This encyclopaedia of 999 images gives rise to the speculative interweaving of possible intersections between ancient civilisations that did not know how to meet and the potential influence one might have had on the other. It also opens up questions towards drifts of the possible, as it projects an enquiry into what place our memory will occupy in the future of synthetic images and what possible mnemonic relationship we will have with them.

What if by running the programme of photography, that of documenting everything, we are in fact creating a database to allow others who read us to understand who we are? What if what we call history, and which we have built with such fervour and blood, is actually a memory that now fulfils another function? Are we handing over our library to artificial intelligences and everything will be mixed up? What will become of our memory? Will we be able to recognise ourselves in these combinations?