Exhibition »Architecture of Traces« by Piloya Irene

In Architecture of Traces, Piloya Irene explores memory as a living, evolving process. Grounded in the concept of neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganize itself through experience – she approaches memory not as a static archive, but as a dynamic system that is continuously reshaped through repetition, interaction, and environmental influence.

Developed in dialogue with the history of Schloss Solitude and its gardens, Piloya investigates how landscapes, architecture, and trees bear traces of labour, resilience, power, and regeneration. Drawing on Jane Bennett’s concept of thing-power in Vibrant Matter, she considers plants, trees, and found materials as active material agents rather than passive carriers of history. The Schloss garden emerges as a living archive where historical, ecological, and social processes intersect, revealing how beauty and nature are inseparable from memory, ideology, and transformation.

The exhibition presents five new works, including sculptural installations of plant materials from the Schloss garden preserved in resin, drawings of tree bark textures on handmade paper, cyanotype prints combining archival and contemporary imagery, and textile works featuring photographs of the historic trees surrounding Schloss Solitude. Through these material processes, the works explore growth, preservation, decay, and transformation, asking what architecture and landscapes remember – and how these memories continue to evolve through time, material, and human intervention.