The work of memory collapses time,” said German philosopher Walter Benjamin. At MAP in Bengaluru, that idea is sealed in glass, holding together what was once broken. Memory Vessels, by the Dutch artist Bouke de Vries, is an installation featuring tall, pristine glass vases, inside which lie shattered terracotta fragments—cracked, chipped, incomplete. The fractures aren’t disguised or repaired; they are the spotlight.
“As an artist and conservator, I have always been drawn to the tension between preservation and destruction,” says de Vries. “In this installation, I encase broken ceramics within glass vases, highlighting the beauty in imperfection rather than hiding it. The idea is to present fractures as part of an object’s history.” Each vessel is different. Some fragments lean inward, others in the middle of a collapse. Together, they read like pauses in time—moments of impact frozen just after the fall. “Each vessel tells a story of memory and reinvention, allowing broken pieces to take on a new existence,” he adds.
Much of the work grows directly out of de Vries’ training as a ceramics conservator. “During an internship at the V&A Museum, I worked on an ancient Roman glass cinerary urn that once contained the ashes of a Roman citizen.” That encounter stayed with him. “When I began creating my own work, I was drawn to the idea of making a glass funerary urn for a broken vase.”
His process is almost ritualistic. When he finds a broken terracotta vase that speaks to him, he commissions a replica in glass. The original fragments are then carefully arranged and fixed inside. “The glass becomes a memory of the original vase,” he explains.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of these works unexpectedly went viral on Instagram. People began projecting themselves onto it. “I discovered that 11 people across the world had even gotten tattoos of my work.”
There’s also a political statement in the material choices. The fragments are sourced entirely from India. “It was important to use materials sourced from India,” he notes, acknowledging regional history and craftsmanship. “Such large-scale glass vessels would not have been possible to produce in places like the UK anymore.”