Yima (in Avestan| Jamshīd (جمشید) in Persian) was a mythological king of the Iranian tradition, charged by the creator with the responsibility to rule over all living beings and see them prosper. His name is connected with the story of a magical cup (the cup of Jamshid) that contained the elixir of immortality.
The wish to control time’s devouring dynamics is an ever existing theme, reflected in the act of archiving. Originating from our desire to preserve our truth towards eternity, archives become our link to the past and a tool for the future, by indexing things, artefacts that connect us with events and ideas. Yet, like Yima’s cup that was used for divination, the reflections of the past are always rippled by our present. Looking into the archive’s indexed material, one can only get subjective clues towards a truth that remains obscure. For in the end, what is left is nothing but objects to be examined from various perspectives, always open to new interpretations depending on the question one poses to them.
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