OPEN CALL: I REMEMBER THIS
Conference, Vienna, 7/8 October 2024
In 2004, ten more countries joined the EU, this large-scale expansion brought about a change on the political map that was expected to have a substantial impact on the political, social, economic and cultural landscape. In the art field, this process of transformation has been the subject of reflection, in particular, in works of art, as well as in exhibitions and special programmes.
Organised by three different archives, the project Art Archive Study. Before and After 2004 is an attempt to look more closely at this specific moment in time by engaging with their holdings as corpora — archival bodies — and examining them in relation to each other.
These archives are: Moderna galerija Archives in Ljubljana (founded in 1971), the Archive of Fine Arts in Prague (founded in 1984), and basis wien – Archive and Documentation Centre (founded in 1997).
The work of these three archives is based on the compilation of material published in the field of art, including so-called ephemera, that documents exhibitions and performances, and the accompanying reception in the media. By collecting, sorting, describing, conserving, making accessible and exhibiting the archived material, the remnants of events in the field of art are preserved and their contexts shown. However, this does not lead to their quasi-reconstruction, or 1:1 reproductions, forming instead a temporal distance to embedded knowledge, and constructing new layers of information. The archives become containers for legible traces, where knowledge gaps are implied along with blind spots intrinsic to such documentation.
An archive conference is being organised in order to contribute proactively to these processes.
The title of the conference I REMEMBER THIS is a reference to an artwork from 1998 by Roman Ondak, who removed the electric sockets, ventilation covers, and alarm sensors from the walls at City Gallery Prague, and mounted them on a scaled-down version of the City Gallery room's architecture — effectively doubling the space. It is one in a series of works that, as Ina Blom describes, “explicitly connected the vacillations of memory to the technical and institutional framework of art display.”* Following the idea of this artwork, its traces and sources, the conference will pay particular attention to the sources and context of information gathering, knowledge production, historical material and associated personal and collective memories.
Scheduled to be held in Vienna on the 7th and 8th of October 2024, the conference is to address a number of highly relevant and urgent issues that emerged in the project Art Archive Study. Before and After 2004, such as:
Have there been any changes in the field of art as a consequence of the EU expansion and, if so, what are they and from what perspective can they be described, especially in the light of the thesis that these changes are still ongoing?
What is the terminology and which categories were useful before the expansion that might have lost their significance?
How was — or still is — the focus on so-called Eastern European Art interwoven with the business operations of banks and insurance companies in parallel to the art market?
What are the priorities and incentives established by the development and promotion of specific programmes and awards?
What role did cultural capital play in entering (and taking over) the markets of the newly developed Eastern European countries?
What forms of critical artistic engagement can be identified in the artistic production of this period regarding issues of identity, gender, Eurocentrism and globalisation? Which criteria in the evaluation of major thematic exhibitions or touring exhibitions with direct connections to the new community space require readjustment?
What were the specific opportunities and promises that the economic and political opening brought for artists in the new member states?
We invite contributions related to the issues and questions proposed. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
• Art, society and economy in the early 2000s, the EU expansion in 2004 and its impact on art production
• Exhibition history, large-scale exhibitions, projects
• East and Central and Eastern Europe CEE as historic terms and established brands
• The art market — art fairs
• Academic and artistic mobility, programmes and impact
• Documentation as an artistic practice
• Oral History as an archival method
• Digital methods in art history, data analyses, visualisation
• Institutional transformation, networks, cooperation
• Globalisation, Eurocentrism and unofficial discourse
Contributors will have the option of working with the holdings and data results of the organising archives themselves, while not being obliged to do so.
Please submit proposals by email as soon as possible, to arrive no later than 26 May 2024,
to: office@basis-wien.at, Subject: Open Call
Proposals should include:
/ A working title
/ An abstract (300 words)
/ A brief biography (150 words)
/ Full contact details
Please send your documents in a single pdf file not exceeding 10 MB
Speakers' expenses for travel and accommodation are covered by the conference, as well as a fee.
Speakers will receive feedback on conference participation as well as information on accommodation and travel by the end of June.
* Ina Blom: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: THE ART OF ROMAN ONDÁK, 2012, in: https://www.artforum.com/features/the-more-things-change-the-art-of-roman-ondak-200261/