Hikari

"Hikari" is a Japanese word which means "the light". This work represents my compulsion to build and shape my own memory. To reconstitute some facts I didn't experience myself, but which unconsciously influenced me while growing up. My grandparents witnessed the war; they were survivors who finally passed away and whose memories will soon be a part of history. We only spoke about their experiences during the war once. They told me how illness took away their sisters; the shame; the relief after the war; and the watermelons. After that single night, we never talked about it again. It was as if my grandparents gave me their memories as a whisper, through the air, before allowing it to disappear from their minds forever. Somehow, I would say that I borrowed their memories. I use their stories as a source of inspiration for my own testimony. —David Favrod