THE ARCHIVE AS ...
... A PROVOCATION
... WHAT CAN BE SAID
... A HEADACHE
... THE ACT OF PUBLISHING
... MAKING THINGS PUBLIC
... A CELEBRATION
... A SCORE
... AN ONGOING DIALOGUE
... A REHEARSAL
... SLOW RUNNER
... EVERYTHING NOT SAVED WILL BE LOST
... A PLACE OF GATHERING
... THE REFUSAL OF THE GHOSTS TO GIVE UP ON US

An exhibition and discursive program with manuel arturo abreu, Niloufar Emamifar, Saidiya Hartman, Moshtari Hilal, Onyeka Igwe, Sami Khatib, Joshua Leon, Maria Lind, Michaela Melián, A. Dirk Moses, Shola von Reinhold, Alan Ruiz, Rachel Salamander, Nora Sternfeld, Sinthujan Varatharajah, Helena Vilalta, and many more

May 27 – August 27, 2023


On the occasion of the bicentennial of Kunstverein München, the exhibition brings together two centuries of the institution’s archival documents for the first time. During the exhibition these will be embedded in a dense discursive program to question how this historical material and the topography of its absences can be made productive for the present.

Joining materials stored on site at the Kunstverein, among them publications, posters, and printed matter, is an inventory of archival records held by the city archive of Munich. Here administrative documents, documentation of exhibitions or artworks are presented, “read,” and put into relation with each other as visual testimonies situated in an adaptable display structure.

On a weekly basis, artists, theorists, (art) historians, and former team members dedicate themselves to the archival material under certain focus points of their own research or experience, (re)arranging and contextualizing or inserting new material. In this way, the history of the Kunstverein will be discussed in a polyphonic context, as the “spokesperson” role of the institution is handed over. The exhibition format, changing through its different actors, negotiates with and in public the question of how histories are constituted. In this process, the past is not treated as one to be reconstructed, but as a representation of reality guided by (personal) interests and contradictions.

THE ARCHIVE AS ... is accompanied by a comprehensive educational program such as the Summer School, which brings together over fifty artists and cultural practitioners to test the possibilities and limits of collective knowledge production.

The exhibition design is conceived by Marlene Oeken and Martha Schwindling.


—

CALENDAR

Participation in all events is free of charge and without registration.

Wednesday, May 31, 7pm
... LOST IN MUNICH
Conversation with Michaela Melián

Sunday, June 4, 4pm
... UNCANNY FUTURE
Conversation with Nora Sternfeld

Wednesday, June 7, 6pm
... LOSING REVERANCE
Screening and conversation with Onyeka Igwe

from June, ongoing
... SLIPPAGES
Contribution by Joshua Leon

Thursday, June 15
Talk by Saidiya Hartman
– Unfortunately, the event had to be postponed. We will inform you about a new date in due time. –

Thursday, June 22, 7pm
... A LISTENING SPACE
Talk by Helena Vilalta

Saturday, July 1, 1pm
... A CONVERSATION
with Heike Ander, Saim Demircan, Maurin Dietrich, Helmut Draxler, Søren Grammel, Gloria Hasnay, Bart van der Heide, Stefan Kalmár, Haimo Liebich, Maria Lind, Post Brothers, Hedwig Saxenhuber, Dirk Snauwaert, Wolfgang Jean Stock

Wednesday, July 5, 7pm
... FOUNDATION WITHOUT A CEILING
Conversation with Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah

July (exact date tbc)
Conversation with Rachel Salamander

Tuesday, August 1, 7pm
... CIVIL SOCIETY
Conversation with A. Dirk Moses

Tuesday through Friday, August 8–11
... A SUMMER SCHOOL
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
with manuel arturo abreu, Niloufar Emamifar, Sami Khatib, Shola von Reinhold, and Alan Ruiz