Regale mit Büchern
© SKD, Foto: David Pinzer

The Whole Life

Archives and Reality

The archive is omnipresent and always temporary. It reflects the realities of the past—while archived knowledge at the same time shapes the present. How do archives and their objects translate historical realities into contemporary narratives? What does this mean for the structure of archives, for their users, technologies, and forms of knowledge production? What
can archives do for today’s societies?

  • DATES 19/05/2019—25/05/2019

[Translate to English:] 2016 ging die Privatsammlung von Egidio Marzona

In 2016 Egidio Marzona’s private collection was donated to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD). This transformation of a private collection into a public archive, the Archiv der Avantgarden (AdA), is the starting point for The Whole Life: Archives and Reality. This moment of transition raises numerous new questions: What are the potentialities of such a process? What influence do archive practices and politics have on collections? What is the significance of the archive as a site for counter narratives and alternative knowledge production?

© SKD, Foto: David Pinzer

[Translate to English:] Wie formen historische Ideologien

How do historical ideologies forge the immaterial layer of the archive and how can current socio-political processes reflect on these past contexts? The Whole Life: Archives and Reality gathers objects, artists, researchers, and practitioners in the space of the Lipsiusbau to address these questions in week-long program of archive viewings, public lectures, evening events and an international congress.

Archive Viewing 20.–25.5.2019

Opening 19.5.2019, 19:00 at Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau
An unrealized draft for a work from Robert Barry, a motorbike developed by the designer Philippe Starck, texts and publications from the group ZERO: The Archiv der Avantgarden consists of artistic works and drafts, letters, photographs, everyday and design objects from the 20th century. Amongst its holdings, it includes collections of Bauhaus objects, photographic records of the Fluxus movement, documents of the Polish Futurists and magazines from the international labour movement.

© SKD, Foto: Klemens Renner
Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau

[Translate to English:] Neun Künstler*innen

Nine artists research and work through their own strategies, methods, and questions along the narratives of the AdA opening up individual perspectives on the collection. In their works, many of which have been specially conceived for the Archive Viewing, they place materials from the archive in installative, filmic, and performative dialogue. A week-long program of readings, lectures and guided tours offers further thematic insights into the extensive collection. With works by Yane Calovski, Assaf Gruber, Gabi Ngcobo, Olaf Nicolai, Meg Stuart, Mathilde ter Heijne, Clarissa Thieme & Tanja Krone und Ala Younis.

Congress 23.–25.5.2019

Against the background of the transformation of a private collection into a public institution, the international congress focuses on practices, technologies, and politics in and around the archive: In the spatial setting of a public archive viewing in the Lipsiusbau, scientists, archivists, curators, and artists discuss archival methods, propose new possibilities for activating archive material, and analyze the politics and paradigms of current and future archives.

Fotografie: © Marcus Schneider, Berlin, 2018

[Translate to English:] Welche Erfahrungs- und Erinnerungsräume

Which experiential and memory spaces can archives and collections reflect, and which do they generate themselves? What is the relationship between archives and canonization processes and what technologies, labor structures, and social processes are part of archival practices? How can we imagine the concepts, narratives, and aesthetics of future archives?

With Marion Ackermann, Ali Atef, Beatrice von Bismarck, Graciela Carnevale, Filipa César, Lynnée Denise, Ismael Dia, Assaf Gruber, Sarah E. James, Egidio Marzona, Doreen Mende, Gloria Meynen, Thokozani Mhlambi, Bonaventure S. B. Ndikung, Olaf Nicolai, Sneha Ragavan, Marcelo Rezende, Daniel Rosenberg, Tamer El Said, Bernd Scherer, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Nora Sternfeld, Ann Stoler, Sven Spieker, Ricardo Viviani, Marc Wagenbach und Vadim Zakharov

Booklet

Program

Currently no dates

[Translate to English:] Das ganze Leben. Archive und Wirklichkeit

The Whole Life: Archives and Reality is a collaboration between Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. / Archive außer sich, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Pina Bausch Foundation and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD).

It is part of HKW’s project The New Alphabet supported by the Federal Government
Commissioner for Culture and the Media due to a ruling of the German Bundestag.

Within the framework of The Whole Life: Archives and Reality the Whole Life Academy will be held from 19.— 25.5. During workshops and field trips, 60 participants will address the status of archives and their connections at various archive locations in Dresden. The academy is not open to the public. Funded by VolkswagenStiftung.

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