CONCEPTION AND USE IN VISUAL CREATION

But, why are art and artists so attracted to archives?

The contribution archives have made to enriching artistic processes is not new at all. Art and archive have been frequently related to each other, if we take into account Aby Warburg’s conviction on the efficacy of the concatenation of past and present facts for researching about creation during historical epoches. Also if we go on with the accumulative anomia that is so common – for instance – at overwhelming exhibitions like those of Gerhard Richter. The question here is about the movement between art and archive: which one is the pattern for which one? If we understand archive as a form of permanence and obstinent conservation, as well as art as incessant modifying and overcoming of its own limits, the answer becomes pretty clear: both art and archive are in a way opposed to each other but supplementary. But, what ist so attractive about the archives for art and artists? We could appeal to a common orientation in creative practices, like the one of meddling inside of the protected while displacing the limits of authority. Is this something turning the relationship between the gesture of the archive and the one of art irreconciliable? In no sense at all.

This project aims to explore known and not so known articulations mediating between both activities, basing on an academic venture. The mission of achieving this implied several different efforts, such as producing a Theoretical Workshop on the Construction of Archives for the Visual Arts (Bachelor Degree on Arts – Plastic Arts) and many different extracurricular activities related to this field: roundtables, seminaries, conferences, exhibitions. These were developed between 2001 and 2014 at the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad de Chile. Core of this experience is the analysis, correction and development of creative processes executed mainly by students offering an answer to these questions in every different version of the workshop.

Archivo + Arte is a complex mixture of original writings by authors and experts as well as a database for references and bibliographical sources. It aims to produce a platform for collaboration. This implies the exchange of experiences and reflections about productive evolution and the progress of the relationships between art and archive.