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 dematerialization of the work and re-enactment practices;
- Performance Art and Archive;
- Forms and practices of the Oral Archive and Digital 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) A text of your choice (for attending students) /3-4) two texts of your choice (for non attening students) :

- L. Conte, F. Gallo, Territori della Performance. Percorsi e pratiche in Italia (1967-1982), Quodlibet, Macerata 2023
- Marco Scotini, Marco Scotini, L’inarchiviabile. L’archivio contro la storia, Meltemi, Milano 2022
- Giovanna Zapperi (a cura di), L’avenir du passé. Art contemporain et politique de l’archive, PUR, Rennes 2016;
- Elvira Vannini, Femminismi contro. Pratiche artistiche e cartografie di genere, Meltemi, Milano 2023;
- Simone Osthoff, Performing the archive: The transformation of the archive in Contemporary art from repository of documentes to art medium, Atropos, New York 2009.
- 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/)


Advanced/reference textbook for attending and non-attending students:
H. Foster, R. Krauss, Y.A. Bois, B.H.D. Buchloh, Arte dal 1900. Modernismo, Antimodernismo, Postmodernismo, Zanichelli, Milano 2006 /H. Foster, R. Krauss, Y.A. Bois, B.H.D. Buchloh Art since 1900. Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, Thames & Hudson, London 2016

Attendance

Attendance is strongly recommended. Attending students will be able to take a midterm exam, the procedures of which will be explained during class.

Type of evaluation

The learning assessment is done through a written test lasting 2 hours. The exam aims to verify the ability to present and analyze topics covered in the course. Three open questions will be proposed. Attending students will also be involved in an intermediate exercise whose evaluation will be part of the final evaluation.

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 dematerialization of the work and re-enactment practices;
- Performance Art and Archive;
- Forms and practices of the Oral Archive and Digital 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) A text of your choice (for attending students) /3-4) two texts of your choice (for non attening students) :

- L. Conte, F. Gallo, Territori della Performance. Percorsi e pratiche in Italia (1967-1982), Quodlibet, Macerata 2023
- Marco Scotini, Marco Scotini, L’inarchiviabile. L’archivio contro la storia, Meltemi, Milano 2022
- Giovanna Zapperi (a cura di), L’avenir du passé. Art contemporain et politique de l’archive, PUR, Rennes 2016;
- Elvira Vannini, Femminismi contro. Pratiche artistiche e cartografie di genere, Meltemi, Milano 2023;
- Simone Osthoff, Performing the archive: The transformation of the archive in Contemporary art from repository of documentes to art medium, Atropos, New York 2009.
- 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/)


Advanced/reference textbook for attending and non-attending students:
H. Foster, R. Krauss, Y.A. Bois, B.H.D. Buchloh, Arte dal 1900. Modernismo, Antimodernismo, Postmodernismo, Zanichelli, Milano 2006 /H. Foster, R. Krauss, Y.A. Bois, B.H.D. Buchloh Art since 1900. Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, Thames & Hudson, London 2016

Attendance

Attendance is strongly recommended. Attending students will be able to take a midterm exam, the procedures of which will be explained during class.

Type of evaluation

The learning assessment is done through a written test lasting 2 hours. The exam aims to verify the ability to present and analyze topics covered in the course. Three open questions will be proposed. Attending students will also be involved in an intermediate exercise whose evaluation will be part of the final evaluation.