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Thoughts on an archive project.
by Elpida Karamba.
The following article refers to a project concerning
the constitution of an archive of young artists. A curatorial initiative
which sets various issues on curating (an alternative space), questioning
as well grouping, categorising, archiving and locating practices and
most importantly a project which participates in the discussions regarding
the necessity and a certain ‘popularity’ of archives recently in visual
arts practices (Iniva, Panchayat, Atlas Group etc). Realising that different
archives have different and varied broad approaches and potential readings,
the extended presentation of this specific project has a more practical,
pragmatical character concentrating on the issues, problems and answers
concerning methodology and decisions as those arouse in the on-going
particular situation of charta project. Something which appears quite
frequently in our problematic is the issue of networking which seems
in a way to underline our approach regarding archives. Networking along
with archive projects presented as visual art practices is the current
subject of research of charta project.
Charta project
Charta project, was initiated by
the author and Roula Palanta in order to create the possibility for
discussion by trying to map an art scene, an area of certain art production.
The project mainly concentrates on the idea of an on-going archive (Hall
S., 2001)
[1]
, which is seen as a renewed idea of the notion of
the archive. Charta archive intends to cover
the geographical area of the Balkans (countries that belong in the Balkans)
and having its physical base, Greece. The objective of project Charta is to create a database, which will cover the broader field
of visual art production in the area. More specifically in order to
accumulate organise and support this material the project includes:
a. An artists' archive which contains information and material on artists
and their work from the Balkan area. At the same time it also concerns
artists of Balkan origin who live and work abroad (diaspora). This material
includes: cvs, images (photographs, slides and videos), texts, reference
catalogues, bibliographical material etc. in an attempt to reveal and
promote the current artistic production of Balkan countries. b. An index
of curators of contemporary art which contains cvs and information on
curators' projects and activities. The aim of this index is to facilitate
communication with and between curators and to encourage collaboration. In order
to facilitate its work Charta
established an internet site, which is used as Charta’s space for the storing and distribution of the relevant material.
The internet space seemed as a direct way to have a quick and broad
contact with the people Charta
wanted to communicate and approach. The site presents the main objectives
of the project (charta’s internet
address is now linked with various search machines so people can visit
us and become familiar with the project). The site includes the artist’s
archive, an online magazine and a space for the presentation of art
projects which will occur from the communication and collaborations
of the people who participate in the project. It offers a member’s form
and a network for an open, online communication and comments (net charta).
Charta's intention is to put its
emphasis on praxis (a praxis which would circulate around a core, the
archive, which focuses not on the distribution of information but on
the creation of possibilities of networking). More specifically praxis
refers to the different activities planned to be organised by the archive's
network (curators, artists, critics, writers). A series of workshops,
discussions, projects and events as well as a digital network are planned
to promote cultural exchanges, social projects, exhibition and other
initiatives undertaken by artists and curators.
Curating the archive
Following
the description of the project I would like to refer more analytically
to the ideas that underlined its development, concerning the archiving
practice and more importantly the curatorial practice in relation to
the specific area where the archive locates its activities.
Archiving
practice: The idea
of an on-going archive suggests that it is not just a body of documentary
material stored somewhere, comprising information about some past event
or period which is not available elsewhere. It is a body of work that
acts or proposes to interact with a living, current reality and therefore
is a never-completed body. The main
idea of the project is that its material will exist to facilitate networking,
the loose mapping of the area covered by the archive. The database of
the archive will include artists’ names, images of their work and related
references (biographical, texts on their work, information on their
activities) but the main aim beyond holding an archive, is to foster
contacts and collaborations. Through the archive one (artist, researcher
curator etc) could get an idea of the current artistic production in
the Balkans, without though the emphasis being on the distribution of
information
[2]
. The ideal involvement with the particular archive
would be for one to draw his own map, his own chart. The use future
researchers will make of the existing material (the reading, mingling
etc) is of particular interest for the curators of the archive who concentrate
their attention on fostering potentiality. An archive
of this kind is a continuous production and as S. Hall (2001) notes
it is impossible to describe such an archive in its totality. The very
idea if an on-going archive contradicts the "fantasy of completeness"
(Hall S, 2001). As work is produced, and networks expand it cannot be
complete. The present practice immediately adds to it. Curatorial
practice: The particular project concerns the exploration, mapping
and presentation/promotion of material (art works, art projects, texts,
information on artists etc) about contemporary art in the Balkans. Charta project, in a way, is a
familiar curatorial project in terms of collecting and presenting the
material in a particular space. At the same time, though, it has the
potential to offer an extended role to the curator, where the curator
is a metaphor for a dj, a compilator who organises the material to generate
a new entity.
In Charta
project the curators, as expected, undertake the task of managing -potential
coherences and of possible network configurations- but the main idea
is to surpass mere translation and replace it by that of incorporation
[3]
. As mentioned
earlier the aim/role of the curators is to create a system of networking
and to investigate the potentiality offered by such networks. This is
an attempt to put the emphasis on networks and relationships. In most
curatorial projects networking plays an important role, though, this
material usually is not visible. Charta
would like to investigate and draw the attention to the importance of
networking, make this material visible and offer this material for interpretation. Networks are likely to create bonds between
people, artists, critics, thinkers, administrators, curators who can
create, investigate/explore an art scene and penetrate in systems of
art scenes. In other words networks offer the possibility to create
dynamic relations. Dynamic relations leap back and forth and influence
neutral relationships which consequently are expanded with an affective
colouring and broader communal relations (Bismarck B., Eichele S., Feldmann
H-P., e.a, 2002). The individual only exists by means of countless collectivities,
with which private experiences are shared and whereby pieces of references
come together in a mobile entity. In other words dynamic relations are
sets of network possibilities that are defined not by their boundaries
but by their many layers that fan out endlessly and thereby also make
various connections. These sets of network possibilities form a platform
that depends and takes into account the relationships between people
and the things that surround them, which thus lead to them anew and
on multi-dimensional relationships that are approached as connective
possibilities that continue to expand
[4]
. Consequently,
the building of the archive is not based solely on material (which austerely
describes a certain area/condition) gathered from the curators. It is
rather based on contacts, relationships that the curators try to establish,
with artists, curators and writers and even with people that don’t belong
in the ‘art scene’ but show a broader interest in the activity (people
from different disciplines, sociology, economy, politics).
"Locating"
practice: More
specifically, in the case of the Balkans (where the particular archive
project focuses its activities), the system of networking offers the
possibility to have a more extended image of the art production of a
specific geographical area of which we only have a fragmented image
of its production. Audiences seem to be (over)familiar with some artists
which are broadly promoted by the dominant system of prestigious influential
institutions in the global metropolises (as for example the work of
M. Abramovich, I. Kozaric), but this does not imply a clear idea of
the broader environment that affects this production. Moreover this
selected and fragmented image prevents one from recognising or understanding
fully the role that such art scenes have in the artistic production
(peripheral-local scenes as opposed to the dominant-global scenes).
At the same time one does not have the tools to evaluate the impact
of the dominant scenes to the production and vocabulary of the peripheral
(Balkan) scene.
The trick
would be though not to try to describe that particular scene as if it
were an oeuvre, but it would
be to try to describe it in terms of relations, relations between statements,
relations between groups, relations between events of quite different
types. To reveal in all the space in which discursive information and
formations are deployed is not to undertake to re-establish it in an
isolation that nothing could overcome; it is not to close it upon itself;
it is to leave one free to describe, discover the interplay of relations
within it and outside it
[5]
. In that sense what initially seemed to be offered by
such an archive was the chance to organise a plenitude of information
in order to create a space for a dialectic discourse. The archive stands
for a different sort of space from that which is constantly over-occupied
and over-activated for the presentation of the visual. It articulates
a space whose role is defined not only by communications but also by
potential communications – by contingencies, in other words which offers
a basic possibility for further expositions, criticality and investigation.
In this context of an articulated dialectic space, it was clear that
the specific archival process could concern other situations, areas,
which shared similar characteristics.
The intention was not to bring forward the case of Balkans
as most important or interesting than other cases. It is more an effort
to propose a way of investigating, understanding and see the potentiality
of creating art scenes which could add in the diversity of the art world.
In this mode of proposing another way of investigation and mapping of
an area this attempt is not undertaken in an elegiac way by showing
the richness of the art production of the area but it also intends to
draw attention to the gaps, the malfunctions and the difficulties. In
that sense, the particular area was chosen as the archive was initiated
by greek curators (and intends to invite curators from the Balkans to
participate in the project) who are more familiar with the artistic
production of the area. The curators involved (or to be involved) because
they work in the area are perceptive and informed on issues of concern
that inform this specific area, therefore it seemed appropriate to use
it as their arena of action.
In other words the intention of the project was to go
beyond the specific (area, artistic production etc - although specific
parameters are taken into consideration for methodological purposes
of collecting and archiving material eg. Balkans, visual art etc). It
was clear from the beginning that the broader aim of this activity was
not only the mapping of the field. The main interest of this activity
is the development of the relevant material: the production of ideas,
discussions and experiences, the creation of new ways of communication
and collaboration within the field of contemporary art in the Balkans.
In this context it is apparent the danger of any such archivisation
to support/create preconceptions about the material it includes as belonging
to a 'concrete group'. In the particular case the artists to be involved,
included in the archive could be considered as 'ethnic artists', but
this is exactly an idea the current project intends to challenge and
disrupt. In this instance the grouping of artists aims to intensify
the dialogue about the nature of artistic practice and to interrupt
the coercion of the system into accepting a particular kind
[6]
of practice by certain artists, related to their
origin, ethnicity etc., and in that sense this kind of charting could
concern other similar situations. Therefore Charta
uses the terms 'temporary groups', understanding its grouping of artists
under the specificity 'Balkan' as a way to originate a dialogue which
can be extended beyond Balkans. Thus,
the specific archive which deals with a specific geographical area tries
to create temporary groups to oppose them to concrete groups and fixed
categorisations, it creates a dialogue concerning the relationships.
In the effort to create an ongoing condition rather than a closed system
of information it was of particular concern for the project to be a
'subject-in-formation'
[7]
. In other
words what the curators will try to evaluate each time is for the project
not to freeze its material as part of time and history. We will try
every time to describe a group of statements so that the grouping of
the archive will remain temporary and the stage of discourse not terminal.
After all, the field described is not tightly-packed, is not a continuous
field, it is as said earlier a field full of gaps, differences and distances.
So, we will try to remain faithful to the preterminal
regularities (Foucault, 2001) that describe what lies behind the
completed system which reveals a group of multiple relations. We are
not looking for a system that describes a specific thought or consciousness
but for relations that describe levels of discourse and thus "one
remains within the dimension of discourse" (Foucault, 2001). In
that sense we understand that the archive could offer a space for alternative
possibilities to develop.
Elpida
Karaba is an independent curator Roula
Palanta is an art historian, Director of the Institute of Contemporary
Arts, Larissa Contact
us on chartaarchive@hotmail.com
or send your emails at e_karampa@hotmail.com [1] an idea which the writer also encountered in the event Potential, On going Archive, organised by A. Harding in June 2002. (The event was including: a symposium (22 June 2001) and an exhibition held in John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton (25 June-24 August 2002) and the publication of the book Potential On Going Archive, Anna Harding (ed.), 2002, Amsterdam, Artimo) [2] the mere distribution of information is something that the current archive wished to avoid. As Adorno notes in The Culture Industry, 1991, p.82: "mere information becomes a system of signals that signals itself. In mass culture an endless bureau of information forces itself upon the hapless visitor and regales him/her with material, sparing each individual from the disgrace of appearing as stupid as everyone. " [3] This idea is derived by the text of Bart De Baere, 2002, “Potentiality and Public Space, Archives as a Metaphor and Example for a Political Culture”, in Interarchive. [4] Bart De Baere, 2002, “Potentiality and Public Space, Archives as a Metaphor and Example for a Political Culture”, in Interarchive. [5] Foucault M., 2001, The Archeology of Knowledge [6] this refers to preconceptions in regards for example with the thematic: an artist from Yugoslavia is expected to deal with the war, or with the fall of the eastern block, and in many cases his case is considered the case of an insider, loaded both with exoticism and consent. |