Documenting, Archiving and Preserving Ephemeral Art

The archive has a place in every institution and most contemporary artists document their work more extensively than ever before. While the collections are the main axis in any museum, ephemeral and performative art forms challenge these and other types of documents entering institutions. Contemporary artists additionally use archives in their artworks and create dynamic projects based on archival theory as a main topic and material for their work.

This course will give a thorough insight into the processes of documenting, archiving – and potentially preserving, performative and ephemeral art. The course will take both a theoretical and practical approach to the topic, going into depth with case studies of, for example, digital, net-based art, performance art, conceptual art as well as sound- and time-based works. These will be approached from the independent curator and artist’s point of view as well as from the institution, to discuss and give solutions and methods for a useful documentation, archival and preservation practice.

Week 1: Introduction to the field