Material as Memory: A Conversation with Nika Neelova

A film by Hanna Chucholowius

In Cascade, Neelova’s installative exhibition at Museum der Moderne Salzburg, she weaves together reclaimed Victorian water pipes, fossilized shark teeth, and antique handrails with archaeological artifacts from the Salzburg Museum and the Mining and Gothic Museum Leogang.

In this video portrait, Neelova discusses her concept of „reverse archaeology“ – an alternative reading of history through found objects and architectural fragments. She explains what draws her to materials marked by decades of human touch, and how her sculptures enter into dialogue with Roman terracotta, medieval devotional objects, and Bronze Age tools. The result is an exhibition that collapses temporal boundaries, where geological deep time meets speculative futures, and where museum collections become active participants in contemporary artistic discourse.