Programme

The Archive as a conservation space for heterogeneous materials, as a crossing point for practices ranging from research to exhibition writing to artistic creation, is a crucial theme in the field of contemporary art, which has prompted a thriving theoretical debate. Around the forms of exposure or over-exposure of the document can be defined different political positions and historiographical practices, between the construction of dominant narratives and perspectives that variously implement theories that decolonize narratives and move dominant canons such as the modernist or the patriarchal one . The course intends to bring attention to these issues and in particular aims to focus on:
- artistic research which, starting from the 1970s, has explored and rethought the Archive also as narrative fiction;
- methods of curatorial practices have explored the practice of the Archive in the display of the document as a tangible trace of the historical discourse or as a possibility of "Performing the Archive", even in the perspective of installation and immersive dimension and in relation to the dematerialisation of the work and re-enactment practices;
- Performance Art and Archive;
- Forms and practices of the Oral Archive.

Core Documentation

1) M. Majorino, M. G. Mancini, F. Zanella (a cura di), Archivi esposti. Teorie e pratiche dell’arte contemporanea, Quodlibet, Macerata 2022
2) C. Baldacci, Archivi impossibili. Un’ossessione dell’arte contemporanea, Johan & Levi, Milano 2016
3) L. Conte, F. Gallo, Territori della Performance. Percorsi e pratiche in Italia (1967-1982), Quodlibet, Macerata 2023



Non-attending students add:

4) A.C. Cimoli, C. Baldacci (a cura di), Archivio è potere, “Roots-Routes” (monographic issue), a. X, n. 33, maggio-agosto 2020 (tutti i contributi; https://www.roots-routes.org/anno-10-n-33-maggio-agosto-2020-archivio-e-potere/)

Reference Bibliography

Insights for attending and not attending: H. Foster, R. Krauss, Y.A. Bois, B.H.D. Buchloh, Arte dal 1900. Modernismo, Antimodernismo, Postmodernismo, Zanichelli, Milano 2006

Type of delivery of the course

The course is organized in lectures conducted through screened presentations of works, documents and multimedia tools. Some topics are studied in depth through the reading and commentary of critical and programmatic texts. During the course, visits to exhibitions and museums and classroom meetings with professionals of the sector are organized.

Attendance

The frequency is strongly recommended.

Type of evaluation

The examination is a written assignment. The examination aims to verify the ability to present and analyze thmes analzied by the course and texts. Three Open questions will be proposed Attending students will also be involved in an intermediate test whose evaluation will be part of the final evaluation.