Living Archives is a project exploring questions raised by the definition, function, and uses of the documents and the archives in contemporary art. Through a program of research, a symposium, exhibitions, workshops and publications, Living Archives aims to instigate a deeper understanding of this aspect of historical and contemporary art practices. From early historical antecedents (Dada, Marcel Duchamp and John Heartfield) Living Archives explores the transformation of the indexical function of the document, its relation with language, and the question of its diffusion. Other historical instances investigated are Conceptual Art--including the questions raised by its political economy, as well as its redefinition of the concept of authorship--and Land Art, with its uses of documentation.Aware of this historical background, Living Archives focuses on several contemporary art practices infused by post-structuralist theories, with a special emphasis on two concepts: the first concerns thinking of art history as an available archive, and the second involves an investigation of generative works, score artworks, citation as interpretation, as well as processes of reenactment.
A project involving artists, art historians and students, in its Californian incarnation Living Archives has been possible through a partnership between the Ecole supérieure des beaux-arts d’Angers, France & the Graduate Division of the San Francisco Art Institute, hosted under the umbrella of Spheres of Interest. Additional support has been received by the Centre national de l’estampe et de l’art imprimé, Chatou, France. Living Archives is a proposal by Sébatien Pluot, Raphael Zarka (ESBA, Angers) and Renée Green, SFAI.
