Painting by Yuliia Holub

The term *“archaeology of the future”* is used as a critique of a regime of self-observation in which society no longer lives within experience but alongside it, as if already cataloguing its own life. Within this logic, the appearance of the trace becomes more important than responsibility for the causes of its emergence. An event loses its ethical weight and is reduced to the form that will remain afterward. This shift is a cultural consequence of division, where the distance between body, consciousness, and action becomes normalized. Observation turns into a more comfortable position than participation, and irony into a safer one than responsibility. *Memento mori* here does not function as a reminder of death or as a filter for evaluating actions. It fixes emptiness: after life, only a shell remains. It is this shell that becomes the object of care and archiving. The fear of disappearance does not vanish but is preserved. The metaposition can serve as a point of support only when there is internal content and the ability to return to action after reflection. Otherwise, it turns into a form of suspension.