STRUCTURES OF MEMORY

FOR ALMOST EIGHT YEARS, Sawant has been quietly documenting Sivia Torg, the building in central Uppsala whose slow decline mirrors not only the fate of a structure but the echoes of urban memory. His project, spanning from 2015 to 2023, is a photographic meditation on time, entropy, and the persistence of place long after the bustle has moved on.

     In the context of photographic tradition, this series situates itself firmly within social‑documentary and architectural photography. There is a lineage going back to mid-20th century photographers who were drawn to the built environment—not merely as backdrop, but as a protagonist. Just as Eugène Atget photographed Paris’s disappearing streets, Sawant turns his camera on Sivia Torg as a palimpsest: a building layered with memory, use, neglect, and reinvention. His approach is also reminiscent of typological studies—systematic, patient, and deeply observant—where repeated photographic visits yield subtle shifts in form, light, and condition.

     Artistically, Sawant treats Sivia Torg with a kind of quiet reverence. Rather than dramatizing ruin, he frames the building with compositional care: stairwells, balconies, corridors, broken windows, and peeling paint become architectural portraits. The images do not sensationalize; they simply hold space for what is. His eye is attentive to geometry and repetition—the reassuring rhythm of concrete and steel, the juxtaposition of decay and persistence—and to the play of natural light as it changes throughout the day and over the years. Through this patience, the building becomes more than an object of deterioration: it becomes a living archive, carrying within its walls the traces of the people who passed through.

     In relation to the contemporary photographic scene, Sivia Torg resonates strongly with current concerns around urban transformation, gentrification, and the slow erasure of “forgotten” spaces. In an age where cities are ever more driven by redevelopment, Sawant’s long-term engagement offers a counterpoint: a sustained and empathetic witness to the life-cycle of a building. His work aligns with photographers and artists who document post-industrial spaces, but does so without the hyper-romanticism that sometimes accompanies ruin photography. Instead, Sawant’s vision is grounded, deliberate, deeply human.

     Ultimately, this project invites us to reflect not just on architecture, but on memory, loss, and continuity. Sivia Torg becomes a kind of monument—not to grandeur, but to endurance. Through Sawant’s lens, we are reminded that every structure, no matter how dilapidated, holds stories—and that to photograph such a place is to keep those stories alive.