Archives in Practice by O. Jaques, C. Ruth, M. Surtmann

Who or what carries, develops and transmits knowledge when it comes to performance and socially engaged art? An institution? An archive? A body? A collective body? A teacher? A website? A hard-drive? A box? ARCHIVES IN PRACTICE investigates methods for how to better include intersubjective and embodied knowledge inside archival practice. The research is especially devoted to socially engaged performance art whose participatory and often delicate practice is difficult to document. The methods of performative archiving will be based on two case studies in collaboration with APL - Angewandte Performance Laboratory and Raw Matters. Rather than a well organised storage we imagine the archive as a vibrant memory field. A place where concentrates (Konzentrate) of practice can be planted and where we activate and also continue the traces and artistic thinking of our peers. The idea of a concentrate has its roots in the three main researchers transdisciplinary and continuously developing performative archival practices; such as the Scenario Method – whereby past events can be artistically examined and recreated (Performatorium) and Living Documents – where performing in a loop is explored as a live documentation format (Ruth & Grünbühel). Through a concluding dialogue with archivists the methods of concentrates as a performative archiving practice will be evaluated and its compatibility with traditional archival logics will be tested. The long term aim is to support horizontal and sustainable transmission of knowledge developed within performative practice and explore how institutions and art educations, such as the University of Applied Arts can better include social and embodied knowledge in its ongoing programming and curriculum.

MAIN RESEARCHERS

Performatorium (Olivia Jaques & Marlies Surtmann)

As an artist and artistic researcher based in Vienna Olivia Jaques is focusing on site-specific, feminist and artistic framing as a socio-political practice and how artistic ways of working can contribute to a critical examination of habits and social orders. She is part of artasfoundation and Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory and together with Marlies Surtmann she is/runs Performatorium. Marlies Surtmann lives and works in Vienna, where she is active in the fields of art, art studies and artistic research. In her work, she focuses on exploration of the relationship between body, space, society and art, as well as questions of participation, exchange and collaboration as central elements of performative art. In her PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna she investigates the archiving of performance practices through artistic performative transmission strategies.

Charlotta Ruth (SE/AT) plays with time and perception inside choreography, ludic structures and artistic research. Her research focuses on liveness, documentation, expanded choreography, systems thinking and participatory sense-making. Since 2017 Ruth has been associated with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she concluded her PhD in Arts in 2022, works as a researcher and lectures at the Angewandte Performance Laboratory. In 2024 Ruth received the City of Vienna 1-year working grant. Within Archives in Practice Ruth focused on methods of auto-documentation considering freelance artists that need to handle documentation themselves due to not enough budget and infrastructural support.

RESEARCH COLLABORATORS

COOPERATION PARTNERS

APL - Angewandte Performance Laboratory is a transversal artistic research and education platform that supports performative art forms at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. We collaborated with APL through facilities and a Case-study.

Raw Matters is a Vienna based platform for dance and performance that supports risk and experimentation through formats of residencies and open stage. We collaborated with Raw Matters through a Case-study.

Archives in Practice is funded through INTRA University of Applied Art's Programm for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Projects in Art and Research

RESEARCH COLLABORATORS

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

METHODOLOGY

LABS

CASE STUDIES

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