OPEN ARCHIVE #2 - REFLECTIONS ON CONTEMPORARY ART, MEDIA CULTURE AND ARCHIVING

Welcome to Open Archive #2. With more than 2500 titles, Argos Centre for Art and Media administers the largest and most accessible archive of audiovisual art in electronic and digital format in Belgium. Have a look at the collections in our multimedia library, and feel free to leaf through over four thousand publications – catalogues, theoretical works, artists’ books and others – that contextualise this selection. In this digital era, archives are constantly changing. Technological developments and social media have resulted in a new, dynamic contact with the past and the forming of recollection. Now more than ever, the past can be seen as a space of possibilities, as a site that can deliver a constructive contribution to an archeology of the present. It is for this reason that the second Open Archive festival – the first edition took place in 2007 – repeatedly places the Argos collection at the heart of the programme of events. Over the course of six weeks, Argos maps developments and trends in the domain of image and media culture. We use our archive as a starting point to trace dozens of discursive paths. Open Archive #2 is divided into a day and an evening programme. Details of both can be found in this brochure. Some suggestions? Follow the exhibition Walking the Hinterland and join one of the walking tours in which artists/guides Els Opsomer and Mira Sanders offer a surprising and different view of the city. Open Archive #2 also takes visitors beyond the walls of Argos with the performances of the artists connected to the Alga Marghen label (in Bozar 03.12.2010), the Ecran d’Art screenings (Cinéma Arenberg 11.11.2010 & 10.12.2010) and with the programme centred on the films of Alexander Kluge in Cinematek (21.11.2010 – 30.11.2010). As well as browsing through Argos’s media library and visiting the exhibitions, we invite you to join us for twelve thematic compilation programmes. We have collectively assembled these on the basis of new works and ’classics’ from the Argos archive. In the temporary projection space, we screen on alternate days works by artists very dear to us. On Saturdays, we put your endurance to the test with the series Extra Length. The evening programme is a colourful blend of artists’ presentations, screenings, discussion panels, performances and lectures. On the following pages, you can read more about all our events in detail. Starting from personal practice, from ’case studies’ or from a dialogue between makers; artists, curators and organisers explore how memory culture and historicity contribute to the development of critical strategies in the arts.

Related events

• Look at Me – Facial Expression and the relation to Image and Identity
• Black Outs – The Eclipse of the Image as a Strategy for Visibility
• Flip Flop – Bilateral Symmetry: Mind Tricks, Virtuality and the Annihilation of the Image
• Citizens & Subjects – Personal Diasporas and Politics of Belonging
• Buffer Zones – Reflections on Transitional Areas
• Communism Afterthoughts - Reminiscences from Soviet Countries
• Notes from the Conflict Zone - From Palestine with...
• Piercing the Market Bubble – Positions against Hypercapitalism
• Strategien Gegen Architektur – Constructions, Spaces and Sites as Elements in Flux
• Disembodied Voices – The Voice Over and its Discontents
• Performing the Self – Autobiography, Exposure and the Artist's Psyche
• Another Look – Relocating Ethnicity and Otherness
• Herman Asselberghs
• Ursula Biemann
• Jan Dietvorst & Roy Villevoye
• Peter Downsbrough
• Vincent Meessen - Clinamen Cinema
• Nicolas Provost
• Alexander Kluge (part 1) - Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike. Marx/ Eisenstein/ Das Kapital
• Alexander Kluge (part 2) - Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike. Marx/ Eisenstein/ Das Kapital
• Steve Reinke - The Hundred Videos
• Peter Watkins - La Commune (Paris 1871)
• Eric Pauwels - Les films rêvés
• Jef Cornelis - De Langste Dag
• Erik Bünger - Songs of Love and Hate
• Frank Theys in discussion with Rony Vissers, Emanuel Lorrain & Christine Lambrechts about Oratorium for prepared video player and eight monitors
• Open archives, Active archives? - #1: Digital properties. An evening with Ronny Heiremans & Katleen Vermeir. Discussions, screenings and presentations
• Open archives, Active archives? - #2: Writing with video. An evening with Pieter Geenen. Discussions, screenings and presentations
• Jayce Salloum - untitled: the video installation as an active archive
• Angela Vergara Santiago in Discussion with Andrea Cinel
• Alexander Kluge at Argos: Mein Jahrhundert, Mein Tier!
• Steven ten Thije and Galit Eilat - Living Archive: Exhibiting the Van Abbemuseum Archive
• Charles Merewether - Archival Malpractice
• Dorothee Richter - Curating Degree Zero Archive
• François Niney - Retour d'images et reprise de vue
• Mihnea Mircan - A Sum of Corrections
• Matthias Michalka - Exhibiting the Archive
• Alga Marghen Label Night #2 - An Illustrated Introduction in Alga Marghen Records: Emanuele Carcano in discussion with Ive Stevenheydens
• Alga Marghen Label Night #1 - Performances by Anton Bruhin, Rhodri Davies, Ghedalia Tazartes and Ben Patterson. Videos by Joe Jones, Robert Filliou and Ben Patterson
• Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson - Waiting for my Soul
• Argos Media Library
• Mira Sanders - The beach and some others curiosities
• Els Opsomer - Never Ending Transit

Subevents

• OPENING NIGHT - OPEN ARCHIVE #2
• ARGOS MEDIA LIBRARY
• THEMATIC SERIES - SCREENINGS
• ARTIST IN FOCUS - SCREENINGS
• EXTRA LENGTH - SCREENINGS
• A CLOSER LOOK – LECTURES AND DISCUSSIONS BY/ ABOUT ARTISTS
• MEDIA, MEMORY, HISTORY - CURATORIAL LECTURE SERIES
• ALGA MARGHEN – RECORD LABEL PRESENTATION & PERFORMANCES
• EXHIBITIONS
• ARCHIVE MATTERS – CASE STUDIES
• ECRAN D'ART - SCREENINGS