The problem of remembering and forgetting in Anselm Kiefer's works

This study examines the concepts of memory, remembering and forgetting from a philosophical, artistic and psychological perspective. In the first part, the concepts of recollection and memory in Plato and Aristotle are first evaluated with a foundation starting from Antiquity; Plato's concepts of memory and anamnesis are analyzed, followed by a discussion of the dialectical aspect that Aristotle brings to the concept of memory. In the continuation and final part of the discussion in this section, the emphasis on the dialectical aspect of memory is elaborated and grounded on Hegel's thought. The relationship between Hegel's concept of Erinnerung and the individual's self-construction, and the connection between remembering and collective memory, is analyzed in the second main part of the study through the works of the contemporary neo-expressionist artist Anselm Kiefer. In this section, it is discussed how the themes of memory and recollection in Kiefer's works are reflected in artistic creation and how they contribute to social memory. Finally, together with its projection in Freud's thought, the effects of memory on social and individual dimensions in Kiefer's art are discussed on a philosophical ground. The main purpose of this study is to discuss on an artistic, philosophical and psychological ground how the concepts of memory and Erinnerung, elaborated and grounded in Hegel, find expression in the forgotten and internalized forms of collective memory through Kiefer's art in relation to the process of self-realization of the psyche.