Palimpsest: THE TIME OF THE ARCHIVE
October 26, 2018, 20:00
With ALA YOUNIS, BINNA CHOI and CLARISSA THIEME
Moderated by Nanna Heidenreich
In english language
Academy of the Arts of the World Cologne
Venue: Stadtgarten, Venloer Straße 40, 50672 Cologne
Which time defines archives? The time when the materials were collected, or the present, from which we view the archive? In recent months the Akademie der Künste der Welt has featured a variety of artistic positions dealing with (non) archived histories under the theme found:erased:palimpsest.
The last evening in this series is dedicated to the question of how the present influences our interpretation of the past, and what conclusions we can draw for our own time from our ever-present preoccupation with archives.
The invited artists will focus on events from recent history. In her presentation, BINNA CHOI refers to the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in 1980 and how this is celebrated in a national historical frenzy without any relation to the political situation of the time. CLARISSA THIEME’s film Today Is 11th June 1993 deals with amateur videos from the period of the siege of Sarajevo. She is less interested in the pure collection and presentation of materials than in their restaging and how the view into the past influences us as observers in the present. In Plan for Greater Baghdad ALA YOUNIS turns to the documentation of demonstrations of male power in a variety of historical documents about Baghdad’s architectural history, allowing the same story to be told from a female perspective in Plan (fem.) for Greater Baghdad.
The evening will conclude with NANNA HEIDENREICH leading the three artists in a discussion about the political potential of dealing with archives–how much does reflecting on the past determine how we deal with the present? And what contribution can artists make in order not to relinquish the decision over the selection of archival materials to current power structures?
Performance "Vremeplov / Time Machine" © Clarissa Thieme