The theme of memory, from the point of view of human experience, in the visual arts is connected mainly with the events of the twentieth century. The main task is considered to be working with traumas, catastrophes of the past, as well as challenging ideas about what happened.

In history, as a rule, depersonalized events and cold results are written. Art, on the other hand, considers each individual person, his memory, emotions important; appreciates different points of view; takes a moment of remembering and forgetting (especially in traumatic experiences), which creates selective memory. Forgetting complicates the work with memory at the social and individual levels. As a means, the memory of one individual or family is often used, as the experience of a whole generation. In this case, the goal is to document a template scenario for the life of an ordinary person. In addition to historical facts, dates, traditional or religious features, the art of memory brings its own artistic gesture to the event it tells about.

Themes found in the art of memory are often associated with traumatic events: the Holocaust, slavery, rape, war themes, AIDS, homelessness, immigration. This indicates the society's analysis of the mistakes of the past, the study of turning points, the formation of the future.

In Belarusian art, work with memory in all areas is controlled by the political situation. Often historical facts are hidden, which complicates the work of restoring the past. An illustrative example of the resistance to the current situation is the exhibition by Anton Sorokin "The past has not yet ended, the future has not yet come" in Minsk. The exhibition touched upon the theme of social memory and used post-independence video and audio recordings to create a nostalgic effect.

In other works, the artist works with events that are not discussed at the state level, but are important elements of Belarusian history: the disaster at the Nemiga metro station in 1999, street protests after the falsification of the results of the presidential elections in 2010, the explosion at the Oktyabrskaya metro station square" in 2011 and the trial of two defendants sentenced to death.

Vladimir Gramovich in his art explores the Soviet past and the modern reality of Belarus. In her works she works with photo collages, archival documents and objects of visual culture.

Other representatives working with the theme of memory: Sergey Shabokhin, Olga Sosnovskaya, Andrey Anro, Alesya Zhitkevich, Lesya Pchelka, Yura Shust and others.