Genii Loci 2013

Editor: Harriet Bart’s "Genii Loci," from 2013, it looks like a site-specific installation involving photography. It's really striking—the way these suspended lenses almost create a curtain of memories or lost observations. What do you see in this piece, looking at its web of visual elements? Curator: I see layers, quite literally. Each lens acts as a portal, a visual echo chamber. Lenses are powerful symbols—they magnify, they distort, they offer a different perspective. They also suggest looking back, reflection on the past but also refraction to interpret our feelings towards historical narratives. Editor: Refraction to interpret… interesting. So you see the lenses as stand-ins for cultural memory? Curator: Precisely. Consider the term 'genius loci' itself—the protective spirit of a place. Bart seems to be asking: how do we capture, preserve, and ultimately understand the spirits tied to particular places through time, the continuous impact of cultural objects and histories? Do you recognize any cultural or psychological element? Editor: The repetition, perhaps. Like mantras, those refractions call for active memories. I like your interpretation. I had initially seen them as objective observations, and I had missed the cultural impact and the refraction metaphor. Curator: Visual symbols are multifaceted, aren’t they? This work speaks volumes about how we continue to give relevance to our surroundings, looking to our collective and emotional interpretation.