they too must have been living out of their memory of the sun is a time-based installation that traces sunlight across a room, rising according to La Habana time (UTC−5)* and moving in sync with the Cuban sky. Shadows fall on plastic flowers that once adorned the artist’s family home; each petal, like an archive, absorbs and retains the light of its place, withering in its own time. Dividing the space into visible and hidden mechanisms, the work exposes artificial time while inviting human gestures that replace the machine. Now separated by distance and its irreversible forces, memory occupies the centre of universal time. Shadows, like minute hands, form an “inverted colonial clock,” restoring erased rhythms, moving slowly and almost imperceptibly, setting every evening into the cracks of history.

* Responding to July of 2025.

The installation is composed of an aluminium louver window, drywall, steel and wood structure, sand-lime bricks, heavy-duty rods, baseline clamps, lashing straps, colour filters, rope, film lighting, a pulley system, carabiners, Arduino, motor, exciter speakers, an MP4 player, two-channel sound played through the drywall, plastic folders, hinges, floral foam, steel grit, laser prints, a postcard holder, plexiglass, a smell diffuser, violet cologne and working gloves.

Size and duration are variable, dependent on the sunrise and sunset of each day.

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The mechanism and programming of the time machine were created with the assistance of Joonas Lumpeinen. The printed matter was designed with Dans Jirgensons, and the sound piece was assembled by Halldór Sörli Ólafsson.

This piece would not have come together without the invaluable advice and help of Luca Cueni, Francisca Khamis, Lorena Solís Bravo, Paulina Martínez Marín, Betsy van Drie, Preben Simensen, Michał Kucharski, Andreas Tegnander, all the tutors of the Fine Arts department at KABK, in addition to Jay Tan and Simnikiwe Buhlungu; the wood workshop team, with special mention to Leonie, Sabin and Dennis; the photography workshop team as a whole; Boudewijn Buitenhek from 3DLab and Jaap Meijers from HackLab; Bart Vissers; the first-year build-up team, constituted by Ruth, Julia, Enzo, Sofie, Ali, Cata, and Artemis; the guys at Skatestore who provided free wheels; and Ric Perton at Sanders Wateringen. Most importantly, all the friends and family who came from near and far to move the sun during the installation—you are an immense part of this piece.