This You Must Remember was a multimedia project consisting of a video installation by British artist Sam Jury (created in collaboration with composer Rob Godman) and poetic texts by author Anton Ochirov. This You Must Remember addressed the aftermath of the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia through the concept of slow violence and the metaphor of a ‘suspended state syndrome.’

Abkhazia is often perceived through ruins and other traces of war - scars that still dominate the country’s landscape. Sam Jury offered an alternative narrative to this familiar image by drawing on the personal memories of those who once saw these ruins as their homes, schools, workplaces and places of leisure. Their stories, reworked into scripts, were told by the participants themselves through voice and performance, woven together with archival footage and contemporary images of Abkhazia.

Jury proposed a new form of documentary that explores the fragmentation of memory and the psychological mechanisms involved in accepting truth. This thoughtful reflection on the traumatic process of destruction reveals that the stability of any society is a long and complex journey.

Another work by Jury, A Camera in Abkhazia, is a triptych filmed in modern-day Sukhum. It begins with images of the sunlit white promenade - one of the city’s most lively and beautiful places - and then shifts to footage from surveillance cameras in Freedom Square, where the ruined parliament building stands as a monument to war. Each visual sketch documents slow violence - the lingering effects of unresolved conflict.Ochirov’s poetry was presented on the walls of the exhibition space and on plexiglass book pages placed on illuminated pedestals. His texts can be read as standalone works or as poetic responses to Jury’s video sketches, inspired by the everyday lives of people in present-day Abkhazia.

The interplay between visual imagery and text invited no single interpretation, with its meaning shifting depending on the viewer’s individual perception.

The project was exhibited twice: at the cultural spaces Depo (Istanbul) and KCB (Belgrade). It was completed with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) and the University of Hertfordshire.