---
title: "AI and the Mediation of the Past: History, Memory, and the Archive"
date: 2026-05-06
last_modified: 2026-05-08T13:43:47+02:00
generated_at: 2026-05-08T12:53:53Z
url: "https://www.schirn.de/en/event/ai-and-the-mediation-of-the-past-artist-talk-en/"
description: "With Grégory Chatonsky and Ania Szczepanska"
image: "https://www.schirn.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn_Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky-1920x1920.jpg"
language: "en-US"
---

# AI and the Mediation of the Past: History, Memory, and the Archive

- ![Abstract scene with a burning frame in a scorched landscape, surrounded by smoky tree stumps.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn_Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025, Installation

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Historical image of a printing house with workers operating typesetting machines and working at tables.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/VERSION_260506.STILLS_0003.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![A young man sits underwater, surrounded by greenish light and silhouetted diving equipment.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn-Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Close-up of a shiny metal surface with the embossed word "DONDORF."](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/INSCRIPTION-DONDORF_0000.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![Abstract scene with a burning frame in a scorched landscape, surrounded by smoky tree stumps.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn_Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025, Installation

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Historical image of a printing house with workers operating typesetting machines and working at tables.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/VERSION_260506.STILLS_0003.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![A young man sits underwater, surrounded by greenish light and silhouetted diving equipment.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn-Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Close-up of a shiny metal surface with the embossed word "DONDORF."](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/INSCRIPTION-DONDORF_0000.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![Abstract scene with a burning frame in a scorched landscape, surrounded by smoky tree stumps.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn_Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025, Installation

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Historical image of a printing house with workers operating typesetting machines and working at tables.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/VERSION_260506.STILLS_0003.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![A young man sits underwater, surrounded by greenish light and silhouetted diving equipment.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn-Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Close-up of a shiny metal surface with the embossed word "DONDORF."](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/INSCRIPTION-DONDORF_0000.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![Abstract scene with a burning frame in a scorched landscape, surrounded by smoky tree stumps.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn_Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025, Installation

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Historical image of a printing house with workers operating typesetting machines and working at tables.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/VERSION_260506.STILLS_0003.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist
- ![A young man sits underwater, surrounded by greenish light and silhouetted diving equipment.](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Schirn-Presse_WTAI_Gregory-Chatonsky_La-Quatrieme-Memoire_2025_©-Gregory-Chatonsky.jpg)

Gregory Chatonsky, La Quatrième Mémoire, 2025

© Gregory Chatonsky
- ![Close-up of a shiny metal surface with the embossed word "DONDORF."](https://www.schirn.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/INSCRIPTION-DONDORF_0000.jpg)

Ania Szczepanska, Reinscribing the Dondorf, 2026

© Courtesy of the artist

Curated by Antonio Somaini.

Two of the artists participating in the exhibition THE WORLD THROUGH AI, Grégory Chatonsky and Ania Szczepanska, will present their works and discuss the ways in which AI transforms our relation with the past: with history, memory, and the archive.

[  To the exhibition ](https://www.schirn.de/en/exhibition/the-world-through-ai/)

**When** Tuesday, June 30, 2026, 7 PM

**Notes** Admission with a valid exhibition ticket

Chatonsky will speak about his installation "The Fourth Memory" (2025), in which generative AI is used to project us into the future and from that vantage point visualize a series of alternative, counterfactual pasts.

Szczepanska will present and discuss her film "Reinscribing the Dondorf" (2026), which tackles the history of the Dondorf Druckerei and the Dondorf family, while at the same time reflecting on what it means to use AI to study archives and archival materials.

- Supported by

NEMETSCHEK Innovationsstiftung