The Archive As a Productive Space Of Conflict

2015
Edited by Markus Miessen, Yann Chateigné

Contributions by Stuart Bailey, Bassam El Baroni, Thomas Bayrle, Jeremy Beaudry, Beatrice von Bismarck, Beatriz Colomina, Céline Condorelli, Mathieu Copeland, Dexter Sinister, Joseph Grima, Nav Haq, Sandi Hilal, Nikolaus Hirsch, Thomas Jefferson, Christoph Keller, Alexander Kluge, Joachim Koester, Armin Linke, Julia Moritz, Rabih Mroué, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Seth Price, Walid Raad, Alice Rawsthorn, Patricia Reed, David Reinfurt, Claire de Ribaupierre, Eyal Weizman, et al.

The applied research project and publication The Archive as a Productive Space of Conflict deals with archival practice and its spatial repercussions. Inquiring whether any accumulation and organization of knowledge is productive—to the effect that it generates a narrative and/or history—the project focuses specifically on archives becoming productive due to their spatial framework. Consequently, the project debates the conflicts that arise when the topological and architectural structure of archives overcome existing models of reservoirs and storage units. The project interrogates whether archives necessarily need to be exposed to spatial permanence, and, if so, what design framework has to be applied in order for those components to be able to take on more than a singular form of existence.

Design by Jonas Fechner, Urs Lehni, Lisa Naujack