Journal | magazén
Journal issue | 5 | 2 | 2024
Research Article | Fare e disfare l’archivio
Abstract
This article focuses on the relationship between contemporary artistic practices and archives. It investigates – through the lens of postcolonial studies and decolonial studies – how artistic creation contributes to reflections on knowledge and public memory construction from the grassroots. The analysis of this dense intertwining starts from the case of documenta fifteen – held in 2022 in Kassel, Germany – by retracing some of the exhibited projects, such as The Black Archives and Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie exhibited in the Fridericianum Museum and Borrowed Faces and Frictional Conversation by Yasmine Eid Sabbagh presented in Hafenstrasse. These works, although situated in specific geographies and contexts, in their common instances make it possible to construe a critical discourse on the archival apparatus and at the same time they elaborate new proposals in the urgency of finding another way of dealing with the history of the oppressed, recovering traumatic memories, using the tools of narration, reactivating processes of subjectivation and recognition of marginalised communities.
Submitted: April 17, 2024 | Accepted: Oct. 9, 2024 | Published Dec. 17, 2024 | Language: it
Keywords Documenta • Archives • Performance • Memory • Contemporary art
Copyright © 2024 Giulia Crisci. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.