Introduction

In his book In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust reflects on the nature of memory, describing it as an embodied, sensory experience where a small trigger, like the taste of a madeleine, can suddenly evoke the past. Proust suggests that what is gone persists not only in our minds but also in the objects and sensations around us, highlighting how our identities are closely tied to the environments we live in. Yet, in the face of the ongoing human-induced climate crisis, the sensory connections that once bound us to these environments and their non-human inhabitants are gradually fading, sometimes irreversibly: landscapes ravaged by fire, submerged territories, species extinction... In this context, how can we preserve and transmit what is vanishing or already lost? How can we repair broken bonds from the past and navigate toward new possible futures? Amid the anxiety and ecological grief triggered by these disappearances and transformations, Memo. Remembering the Futures showcases artists and designers whose works function as acupuncture points in the larger body of ecological discourse. Their interventions are militant, critical, and timely. Whether by caring for lost species, preserving gestures and memories, or crafting new forms of material knowledge, their works stimulate all our senses, and remind us that resistance through care is one of the gentlest yet most powerful and fertile options we have.