Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera promotes an international seminar aimed at presenting recent research in the fields of visual arts and contemporary cultural production, focusing on the analysis of the archive as a disciplinary, social, and political institution, while also considering it as a critical and potentially emancipatory framework.
Starting from the premise that archives are not neutral repositories of documents, but rather institutions that reflect the forma mentis of the communities that have produced them throughout history, and that actively shape both individual and collective culture and memory, the seminar presents a range of artistic research projects and case studies.
Through a critical re-reading of the cultural, geo-political, and socio-political status of the archive, it is framed as a possible tool for rewriting history, engaging diverse phenomenologies and media, as well as innovative theories and practices of meaning-making in epistemological and linguistic terms.
The first part of the seminar is devoted to the work of artists who address ecological, geopolitical, and historical themes, producing images and visual materials informed by the epistemological model of the archive (Kannisto, Hermansen, Gelis), or developing novel interpretative approaches to collective history based on research in existing archives, thereby fostering an unconventional dialogue among heterogeneous sources (Ferrini, Fregni Nagler).
The second part presents contributions that examine archives as cultural frameworks, disciplinary institutions, and instruments of re-signification, drawing on their histories and contents. Speakers will include:
Curators
- Lucrezia Cippitelli