In my opinion, an archive is needed to record and save some events. There will be no unifying interpretation of a curator or a collector here. And a collection is already a personal choice and participation in events and objects.
«Cummings and Lewandowska make the following distinction between an archive anda collection:
Archives, like collections in Museums and Galleries are built with the property of multipleauthors and previous owners. But unlike the collection, there is no imperative within thelogic of the archive, to display or interpret its holdings. An archive designates a territory –and not a particular narrative. The material connections contained are not already authoredas someone’s – for example, a curator’s – interpretation, exhibition or property; it’s adiscursive terrain. Interpretations are invited and not already determined.»
Sue Breakell, ‘Perspectives: Negotiating the Archive’, in Tate Papers no.9,https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/09/perspectives-negotiating-the-archive, accessed19 November 2023.
ILYA & EMILIA KABAKOV, THE MAN WHO NEVER THREW ANYTHING AWAY (THE GARBAGE MAN), YEAR: 1988, CATALOGUE NUMBER: 21, NOTES See installation “Ten Characters,” Cat No 15 PROVENANCE The artist 1995, Collection Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo [online] https://www.kabakov.net/installations/2019/9/15/the-man-who-never-threw-anything-away-the-garbage-man (Accessed 23.11.2023)
For me, the archive is an important story, which we who are living now simply must return to and rethink. In this way, the archive will live and transform. An example would be letters and documents from the Gulag. This is the place where hundreds of thousands of innocent people died, and Stalin was the culprit of the regime. But since society has not restored and worked through this burden of tragedy, it has not carried out reflection, so now in modern Russia it is completely normal to hang a portrait of Stalin on the wall at school or erect a monument to him.
Regarding my old works, this is not an archive or a collection - these are old works. Good and bad, less or more successful. Of course, it is very important to reflect on these works, which I often do. But more often I just take them apart, re-farm them or remake them.
For example, while choosing an artwork for analysis, I came across this one.
Altar of Materiality, 2021, wood, paper, nails, screws, paint, varnishes, rope, sheepskin, wire, the face of St. Matrona of Moscow, candle, 56L x 58H x 23D cm.
At the same time, it should be noted that since 2013 I have been maintaining an electronic “archive” with descriptions and photographs of all my works. This helps me quickly retrieve past thoughts or go back to look for something. Due to a lack of storage space, I redid almost all unsuccessful or bad works. But there are some that remain important to me after years. And these good works are shoved and scattered all over my place and even I have to rent a small warehouse.
So, going back to my sculpture - it is very figurative compared to my colour fields.
Or here's another one:
Balance, 2021, wood, paper, paint, adhesive tape, plaster, rope, cardboard, 109 x 50 x 18 cm.
I kind of take the topic and show its duality. For example, in my country, and especially now during the war, I would probably be accused of discrediting the church and I would be imprisoned. But even then, in 2021, I myself felt morally uncomfortable doing such work. But I did it because of precisely this curiosity and internal conflict. Morally, and according to the laws of the church, I must respect the “altar” and the holy faces and, in general, the church itself as an institution. And I dared to make my own “portable” church with my own hands, and even out of some garbage... I created for myself God, if I remember it right, this is a forbidden commandment in the Bible...
And this is exactly what I like about art: I can doubt the norms if it's too much and feel the distortion in laws. Everyone is saying that NFTs are popular now, well, I’ll work with pure wood, everyone is saying, why don’t you draw or make sketches with pencil, and who said it’s so right? Okay, I'll sketch with sounds.
Of course, I can think, and if everyone says that the fire will burn my fingers, I will not crawl into the fire. But when the majority says that there are Nazis in Ukraine and that America attacked Russia, I want to work here and check it myself.
P.S. From the outside, it may seem that I have a manic-depressive disorder, I only talk about childhood grievances and the war. Let me tell you - I’m in a reasonable state and I’m just trying to help myself. =) And since I have a deep practical study ahead of me, I now want to collect and analyse all my secret motivations.
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