Archival Practices as Collective Readings

Workshop facilitated by Vijai Maia Patchineelam

Part of The Elemental You exhibition

Date: 11 Dec 24 - 14 Dec 24

Time: 11.00am – 6.00pm

Venue: KNMA Saket

What to Expect

A four-day workshop developed for artistic practices working with and researching archives and collections. This may be the case of a more formal archive or collection hosted by an institution, but also informal collections found or otherwise, such as photo albums, postcards, letters, notebooks and/or other peculiar objects gathered over a period of time. 

During the workshop participants will study different references of artists, filmmakers, curators, theoreticians and other cultural workers engaged with archival practices. Vijai will also discuss different concepts and models developed by different practitioners that have challenged and expanded the notion of archiving.

What you need to carry

You will need to bring to the workshop a project or case that you are working on or have worked on in the past. The workshop is oriented towards discussion over artistic and other cultural practices that engage with archives and collections, rather than a production oriented one. Together will look to problematize and critically reflect on artistic and cultural practices that have opted to engage with formal and informal archives and collections.

Artist Bio

Vijai Maia Patchineelam is an artist researcher and educator. His artistic practice focuses on the dialogue between the artist and the art institution. Placing the role of the artist as a worker in the foreground, Vijai’s research-driven artistic practice experiments with and argues for a more permanent role for artists — one in which artists become a constitutive part of the inner workings of art institutions. A recent outcome of his PhD (2022), which experimented with and advocated for a job position for artists inside art institutions, is the implementation of the position of "artist as a public mediator" at the art space KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium.