Synopses & Reviews
In the modern era, the archive -- official or personal -- has become the most significant means by which historical knowledge and memory are collected, stored, and recovered. The archive has thus emerged as a key site of inquiry in such fields as anthropology, critical theory, history, and, especially, recent art. Traces and testimonies of such events as World War II and ensuing conflicts, the emergence of the postcolonial era, and the fall of communism have each provoked a reconsideration of the authority given the archive -- no longer viewed as a neutral, transparent site of record but as a contested subject and medium in itself.
This volume surveys the full diversity of our transformed theoretical and critical notions of the archive -- as idea and as physical presence -- from Freud's "mystic writing pad" to Derrida's "archive fever"; from Christian Boltanski's first autobiographical explorations of archival material in the 1960s to the practice of artists as various as Susan Hiller, Ilya Kabakov, Thomas Hirshhorn, Renée Green, and The Atlas Group in the present.
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Review
The Archive is a collection of pivotal essays on the role of archives in modern art and history...The book's playful design employs pull quotes resembling children's lettering, street-art manifestos or eye exams. One such is from Walter Benjamin's essay, 'A Short History of Photography,' showing the inspirational potential of archival material: 'Utrillo painted his fascinating views of Paris not from life but from picture postcards.' Peter Osborne, Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, and editor of < i=""> Conceptual Art <>
Review
Contemporary art constantly requires the construction of new lineages, new histories, to render it critically intelligible. The idea of the archive is currently at the centre of such activities. This anthology offers an illuminating mix of texts, interlacing analysis with artists' writings...and a useful antidote to sentimentalizations of the past. The MIT Press
Review
andquot;Contemporary art constantly requires the construction of new lineages, new histories, to render it critically intelligible. The idea of the archive is currently at the centre of such activities. This anthology offers an illuminating mix of texts, interlacing analysis with artists' writings ... and a useful antidote to sentimentalizations of the past.andquot;
andmdash;Peter Osborne, Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, and editor of Conceptual Art
Review
andquot;The Archive is a collection of pivotal essays on the role of archives in modern art and history.... The book's playful design employs pull quotes resembling children's lettering, street-art manifestos or eye exams. One such is from Walter Benjamin's essay: 'A Short History of Photography,' showing the inspirational potential f archival material: 'Utrillo painted his fascinating views of Paris not from life but from picture postcards.'andquot;
-- Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
In the modern era, the archive--official or personal--has become the most significant means by which historical knowledge and memory are collected, stored, and recovered. The archive has thus emerged as a key site of inquiry in such fields as anthropology, critical theory, history, and, especially, recent art. Traces and testimonies of such events as World War II and ensuing conflicts, the emergence of the postcolonial era, and the fall of communism have each provoked a reconsideration of the authority given the archive--no longer viewed as a neutral, transparent site of record but as a contested subject and medium in itself.
Synopsis
The significance of the archive in modernity and in contemporary art; writings by Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Hal Foster, and others, and essays on the archival practice of such artists as Gerhard Richter, Christian Boltanski, Renée Green, and The Atlas Group.
Synopsis
Interdisciplinary and global in scope,and#160;Performing Archives/Archives of Performanceand#160;investigates the relationship between live performance and recordings, bringing newandmdash;and productiveandmdash;tensions between permanence and ephemerality into relief. Advancing theoretical understandings and analyzing specific artworks, performances, and archives, the contributors formulate new ways of understanding history, memory, enactment, and intervention, offering major contributions to ongoing critical discussions on performance and its disappearance and reproduction.and#160;
About the Author
Gunhild Borggreen is associate professor of visual culture in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen. She is the author of Disrupted Images.and#160;Rune Gade is associate professor in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.and#160;
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Archive in Performance Studies
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Gunhild Borggreen and Rune Gade
and#160;
I: Ontologies
Archiving Legacies: Who Cares for Performance Remains?
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Heike Roms
Unpredictable Temporalities: The Body and Performance in (Art) History
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Amelia Jones
Unstable Archives: Languages and Myths of the Visible
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Julie Louise Bacon
This Way Brouwn: The Archiveandmdash;Present, Past, and Future
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Peter van der Meijden
andldquo;All This is Leftandrdquo;: Performing and Reperforming Archives of Khmer Rouge Violence
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Emma Willis
Living Archives as Interventions in Ea Solaandrsquo;s andldquo;Forgotten Fieldsandrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Rivka Syd Eisner
Choreographic Archives: Towards an Ontology of Movement Images
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Rachel Fensham
Dance Encounters Online: Digital Archives and Performance
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Sarah Whatley
Performance, Again: Resuscitating the Repertoire
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Tracy C. Davis and Barnaby King
The Archive Is Here and Now: Reframing Political Events as Theatre
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Laura Luise Schultz
and#160;
II: Archives of Performance
Remembering Istanbul: What, How and For Whom? Canons and Archives in Contemporary Art Biennialization
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Malene Vest Hansen
Performing and Deforming the Family Archive
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Mette Sandbye
The Performative Uses of the Surveillance Archive in Manu Lukschandrsquo;s Works
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen
andldquo;Sombra Dolorosaandrdquo; (Guy Maddin, 2004): A Queer Archival Performance
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Margherita Sprio
andldquo;Undercoverandrdquo; by Hotel Pro Forma, Performing the National Archive: Staging Cultural Heritage at the Royal Library in Copenhagen
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Annelis Kuhlmann
Flexowriters, Punch Paper Poetry, and Ontological Gaps: What happened to the Unheard Avante-Gardes?
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Morten Sandoslash;ndergaard
Staging the Self (Transformations, Invasions, and Pushing Boundaries)
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Martha Wilson
Archives and the Performance of Becoming andldquo;Otherandrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Catherine Bagnall
and#160;
III: Performing Archives
Performing the Archive: The Future of the Past
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Paul Clarke
Performing Histories: Archiving Practices of Rimini Protokoll and The Atlas Group
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Solveig Gade
Archives of Secrecy: Yoshiko Shimadaandrsquo;s Art Project andldquo;Bones in Tansuandmdash;Family Secretsandrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Gunhild Borggreen
Labor of Love: Contesting Normative Urbanization in Marianna Jandoslash;rgensenandrsquo;s andldquo;love alleyandrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Rune Gade
Escaping the Fortress of Memory: Archive Pathology in Lindsay Seersandrsquo;s Art
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Louise Wolthers
The Trouble with Straight Time: Disruptive Anachronisms in Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenzandrsquo;s andldquo;N.O. Bodyandrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Mathias Danbolt
Un/archive
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Marco Pustianaz
and#160;
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Contributors