The traces left behind by events bear witness to what had happened, they help us reconstruct the past, make sense of the present and anticipate the future. They allow us to reflect on the relations between the event and what is left behind it, between the structure of everyday life and its representation in a certain period. An archive is a collection of documents we keep returning to, drawing from them, comparing them to each other, and access to an archive represents privilege and power. Despite an archive’s apparent objectivity, the constant questioning of who is building it and who, if anyone, can access it, is of key importance.
In the exhibition S03E03: This too shall archive, the artists act as archivists. In creating their archives, they define the keys that help them decide what to keep and what to discard, and they interpret, organize and translate the gathered material into works subjectively. In their works, Lucija Rosc and Neža Knez browse nostalgically through family archives. While the former creates sculptures and collages from found photographs, objects and her own drawings, the latter questions our attitude toward memories through old family recipes. Tom Winkler’s Showcase non-selectively holds both successful and unsuccessful production attempts in the process of seeking the perfect product. Matej Mihevc’ archive is filled with at first glance irrelevant clips of VHS television recordings, found in a stranger’s archive, while Maks Valenčič utilises the Political Compass method to systematically organise tweets from the existing and daily increasing internet archive. Teja Miholič leaves the recording of her everyday to coincidence – from September 2018 to April 2020, she entered short personal notes in her “diptych archive” every time she encountered an abandoned chair on the street. Unlike the others, Ana Likar does not create her own archive with the work It Will Take Countless Antennae, but rather builds a subtle image of an already existing collection of insects, hidden in the middle of a shopping mall, which she does not really have access to.
Artists: Ana Likar, Teja Miholič, Lucija Rosc, Matej Mihevc, Maks Valenčič, Neža Knez, Tom Winkler
Curator: Anne Tassel
Organisation: Kino Šiška and Gallery 7:069
Free entry.
