13651

At Work in the Archive: Art and Decolonization

Ferdinand de Jong

Kommentar

In the last two decades, an increasing number of artists have engaged the spectres of colonialism that continue to haunt us in our postcolonial present. In their work, the archive often figures as source or resource, matter or metaphor, and presence or absence of our colonial past. Considering the intensity of this archival return, it is no exaggeration to state that the archive has emerged as a paradigm through which artists pursue engagements with colonial histories. In their work the archive enables them to confront the legacies of their colonial pasts and provides them with possibilities to conceptualize the hidden histories and counter-memories that have been suppressed by screen memories whose traumatic contents need to be addressed to open up alternative futures. Conventionally imagined as a technology for the storage of traces of the past, in this context the archive may be thought of as a site to rethink the past, present, and future. In this seminar, we examine how work in the archive explores alternative relations between past, present and future. We will do so by examining a range of practices adopted by scholars, archivists, social activists, and contemporary artists in their engagement with the archive. This will include themes like; how colonial archives have been neglected, destroyed, and replaced by decolonial archives; how photographers have embraced archival images as material to recycle and repurpose; how contemporary artists have developed alternative archival epistemologies; how restitution might be conceived as a form of archival memory work; and why, in the post-apartheid context in South Africa, the decolonization of the university has been conceived as a question of the archive. In sum, the seminar examines how the archival turn addresses the question of African futures. Schließen

Literaturhinweise

Callahan, S., 2022. Art + Archive: Understanding the archival turn in contemporary art. Manchester University Press. Garb, Tamar (ed.). 2013. African photography from the Walther Collection. Distance and desire: encounters with the African archive. New York: The Walther Collection, and Steidl, Göttingen. Van Alphen, E., 2014. Staging the archive: Art and photography in the age of new media. Reaktion Books. Schließen

12 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Mo, 14:00 - 16:00 12 Termine

Mo, 14.04.2025 14:00 - 16:00

Dozenten:
Prof. Dr. Ferdinand de Jong