"Not to transmit an experience is to betray it".  This Elie Wiesel's phrase can sum up anthropologist Laetitia Atlani-Duault's determination to create the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic began in May 2020.  The Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute has been working since then to collect and analyze collective and individual memories in order to remember, understand and act.

"Each time there is a crisis, a political crisis, a humanitarian crisis, a crisis linked to an infectious disease, ... each time, the question of memory is essential, but very often, too often, because we are in the middle of it, because we are trying to survive, because we are trying to fight against it. Collecting traces and memories is not the priority. And too often we realize after it, too late, that we should have done it from the very beginning"

That’s why Laetitia Atlani-Duault notably founded the COVID-19 Ad Memoriam Institute in May 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic. Based in Paris-Cité University, the institute benefits from the support of the World Health Organization.

Covid Memories is a podcast in which the anthropologist Laetitia Atlani-Duault, founder and president of the Institut Covid-19 Ad Memoriam, looks back at the creation and vocation of the Institute. She explains why memory is a form of counter-giving, and how keeping alive the memory of the Covid-19 pandemic could help redefine a new social contract. You'll also find anonymous testimonials collected on  Histoiresdecrises.fr website, and an interview with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for her contribution to the discovery of the HIV-AIDS virus, and Honorary President of the Institut Covid-19 Ad Memoriam. 

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COVID MEMORIES

A podcast by Institut Covid-19 Ad Memoriam, written by Zoé Varier, produced by Flora Bernard and mixed by Benjamin Touron, with original music by Alice-Anne Brassac and an artwork by Violaine Avez. A StudioFact Audio Production.
English voice-over : Samia Basile, Clara Llhuillier, Daniel Meneses, Mila et Tom Duault (special thanks to them !)