International Symposium on Photography & Visual Culture
International Symposium on Photography & Visual Culture
© Rein Jelle Terpstra
3rd EDITION
TIME AFTER TIME
Pictures between instant and duration
© Cortis & Sonderegger
GUEST SPEAKERS
Jojakim Cortis
Visual Artist, Switzerland
Adrian Sonderegger
Visual Artist, Switzerland
The invention of photography has forever changed the relationship between images and time. This relationship is, however, far more complex than the chronological perception of past, present and future, and possible through other qualities such as movement, narrative, metaphor, memory, repetition, or performativity, to name a few. By exploring time outside the physical chronological conventions it is possible to perceive a symbolic temporal dimension in which subjectivity is at play. The subjective expectation and the experiencing of time therefore enable us to reflect on the temporality of the unspeakable, or to perceive the instant time as an immeasurable present or an untimely time. In this context, the transformation of photography from the analogue to digital medium has introduced new layers of complexity concerning our relationship with time. The idea that photography holds a mortiferous power and relates to notions of immobility and death has shifted into the idea of motion, speed and excess. Considering the technical age we live in, the link between images and time is no longer possible through simple and stable definitions, but rather through an engagement with different forms of uncertainty.
The present edition of the International Symposium Reframing the Archive aims to explore this subject by bringing together an exciting line-up of speakers, including a talk by artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger, and five panels of research papers presented by international scholars and artists who explore the temporal perception of photography and other time-based media, from ontological debate and case studies analysis, to visual methodologies explored in contemporary visual arts, or the technological impact in the production of knowledge and our imaginaries of the future.
VIDEO RECORDING
GUEST SPEAKERS
CORTIS & SONDEREGGER
Artist talk introduced and moderated by Ana Catarina Pinho
Conference Speakers:
Josué Guerrero / Anton Lee / Sara Damiani / Phil Hill / Eryfili Drakopoulou / Nicoletta Grillo / Imola Gebauer / Dovilė Dagienė / Jennifer Good / Vanessa Gravenor / Helena Ferreira / David Rojinsky / Katarina Andjelkovic / Ernestina Zhu (Xinyi) / Sayam Ghosh / Alexandra Wilk / Gabriela Sá / Maria Vaz / Shane Caldwell.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Ana Catarina Pinho
Ana Lúcia M. de Marsillac
Esther Scholtes
Marta Labad
Paula Ribeiro Lobo
Santasil Mallik
PRODUCTION
ARCHIVO · Photography and Visual Culture Research Platform
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Ana Catarina Pinho
Assistants:
Alexandra Wilk
Gabriela Sá
SUPPORT
2nd EDITION
IMAGE COUNTER IMAGE
© Paulo Mendes
14-15 JUN 2019
10am - 6pm (GMT)
Portuguese Center of Photography, Porto, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
GUEST SPEAKERS
Cristina Baldacci
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy
GUEST SPEAKERS
José Maçãs de Carvalho
ESAP, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Susana de Sousa Dias
Visual Artist, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Paulo Mendes
Visual Artist, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Catarina Simão
Visual Artist, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Manuel Santos Maia
Visual Artist, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Ana Janeiro
Visual Artist, Portugal
RE/FRAMING THE ARCHIVE: Image Counter Image aimed to continue the discussion initiated in the first seminar (Image, Time, Memory, 2018), delving into the dynamics between visual culture, archive, memory and history, through collaboration with researchers and visual artists. This edition of the seminar was focused on the Portuguese historical past by approaching the imperial imaginary through events of the dictatorship and the colonial context.
The seminar opened with a keynote speech by Italian art historian Cristina Baldacci, whose research work focus on the appropriation of the archive and atlas of images as artistic gestures and visual forms of knowledge. Artist José Maçãs de Carvalho presented his artistic practice, in connection to archival images and its forms of mediation with the present. Portuguese artists Susana de Sousa Dias, Paulo Mendes, Catarina Simão and Manuel Santos Maia contributed for a reflection of the national history and memory through their research based artistic practices, towards critical approaches of images and its signification.
The second day of the event opened with a live performance by Portuguese artist Ana Janeiro in which she narrates the process of examining and interpreting her family archive, and was followed by a film screening with works by Susana de Sousa Dias, Paulo Mendes, Catarina Simão and Raquel Schefer.
PERFORMANCE
THE ARCHIVE IS PRESENT | Ana Janeiro
Live performance with projection, 15"
The Archive is Present investigates family photographic archives and develops interpretations of these archives through performance photography, exploring the construction of identity. Family albums belonging to the Janeiro’s maternal and paternal grandparents represent a period in Portugal’s past (1940–75) scarred by colonialism and one of the longest-lasting dictatorships in history. The photographic work is based on an analysis of the photographs in the two families’ albums, specifically images of the two grandmothers, as representative of two women’s lives during this period in history. The work presented is a live performance which narrates the process of analysing an archive and interpreting it though performance.
FILM SCREENING
SUSANA DE SOUSA DIAS | PAULO MENDES | RAQUEL SCHEFER | CATARINA SIMÃO
STILL LIFE (NATUREZA MORTA) | Susana de Sousa Dias
2005, 72", Kintop
Within an image, another one is always hiding. Using only archive footage and without words, Still Life aims to rediscover and delve into the opacity of images made during the 48 years (1926-1974) of Portuguese dictatorship (news, war footage, propaganda documentaries, photos of political prisoners and also previously never seen rushes) in order to foster new interpretations.
S DE SAUDADE, CONTINUAR PORTUGAL (SECRETARIA GERAL) | Paulo Mendes
2010, Video DV PAL, 4:3, cor, p/b, som, 11"
“What is the truth?” asked Salazar in his speech in 1966, in Braga, during the celebration of the 40th aniversary of the 28th of May. In this video, official images of the trip to the Portuguese Empire in Africa, made by the President of the Republic, General Carmona, are added and merged with an older video work from series S de Saudade, enti- tled O Passado e o Presente (2008), thus critically evoking the portuguese political and social memory of the period of Estado Novo (New State).
GRANNY (MUIDUMBE) | Raquel Schefer
2009, Stereo sound, Video HD, color, 11’
Mozambique, 1960, just before the beginning of the war, portrait of a colonial family. A sequence of archive footage shot by my grandfather, former colonial administrator, is the point of departure for an experimental documentary on the history of the Portuguese decolonization and its memory. Double memory or memory split in two: the lived and descriptive memory of the colonizers (their texts, their images) versus the invented memory of their descendants. This film is an attempt to represent my indirect memories of Mozambique.
MUEDA 79 | Catarina Simão
The Mozambique Archive Series, Lisboa, 2013, Stereo sound Video HD, color, 11"
Mueda 79 is a close reading of a 7 minutes film sequence of Ruy Guerra’s Mueda, Memória e Massacre, produced in the late 1970’s by Mozambique National Institute of Cinema. By using repetitions and causing the focus to shift to the number of times that a scarf is taken from Modesta’s head, with the objective of delaying the meaning of the main history. Thus, the gaze can be redireccioned to a new focus, in which the descriptive elements of what we are observing are aknowledged within the story that is being told.
Convenor / Artistic director
Ana Catarina Pinho
Production assistant
Andrés Pachón
Photography
Natacha Suéli Pereira
Filipa Sampaio
ORGANISATION
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNER
SUPPORT
1st EDITION
IMAGE, TIME, MEMORY
© Daniel Barroca
© Daniel Barroca
23-24 NOV 2018
10am - 6pm (GMT)
Portuguese Center of Photography, Porto, Portugal
GUEST SPEAKERS
Anna María Guasch
University of Barcelona, Spain
Eduarda Neves
ESAP, Portugal
Paula Ribeiro Lobo
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Susana Lourenço Marques
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Manuel Botelho
Visual Artist, Portugal
Daniel Barroca
Visual Artist, Portugal
Pedro Lagoa
Visual Artist, Portugal
João Paulo Serafim
Visual Artist, Portugal
RE/FRAMING THE ARCHIVE: Image, Time, Memory was the first edition of a seminar that aimed at debating and reflecting upon the role that images play in the representation of memory, the construction of history and, consequently, in the perception of the real. The opening day of the seminar was attended by scholars Anna María Guasch and Eduarda Neves, whose interventions proposed a reflection on the concept of the archive, namely on the conditions that lead the archive into becoming a vehicle of creation and criticism. This was be followed by presentations by Portuguese artists Pedro Lagoa and João Paulo Serafim, who meet the themes approached before, contributing to the discussion about artistic practices as conceptual and experimental tools that question not only the archive, but also the intermediate institutions of memory and knowledge in modern societies.
The second day of the seminar opened with presentations from scholars Susana Lourenço Marques and Paula Ribeiro Lobo, who approached the dynamics established between images, history, memory and the imaginary, putting in context the role of forgetting and remembering, from interpretation to imagination, reality to fiction. Following, Portuguese artists Manuel Botelho and Daniel Barroca presented their artistic practices, in relation to memory, temporality and the re-signification of archives and photographic imagery.
EXHIBITION
IMAGE, TIME, MEMORY
WORKS BY MANUEL BOTELHO AND DANIEL BARROCA
CURATED BY ANA CATARINA PINHO
17-30 NOV 2018 | Project Room, Galeria Fernando Santos, Porto, Portugal
Image, Time, Memory is an exhibition that presents the work of Portuguese artists Manuel Botelho (1950) and Daniel Barroca (1976), by establishing a dialogue between the work of both artists, focusing on the visual representations of memory, more specifically the memory and collective imaginary of the Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974).
Botelho's presents us with "Album" (2017) which he developed from vernacular imagery, in this case the photo albums of an unknown Portuguese soldier from the Colonial War, where the artist highlights the performative gestures of the subject, playing with the links between reality and fiction, historical construction and imaginary. Barroca also approaches vernacular imagery, only this time he delves into his fathers photo albums from the same war. In "Soldier Playing with Dead Lizard" (2008), he works with archival imagery in its debris and losses, questioning the limits of historical representation.
Focusing on the appropriation of different types of visual archives, both artists develop different, although complementary, ways of approaching and manipulating images from the past, through strategies that open a certain disquietness caused by those images and also highlight the importance of reconfiguring such images as a way of offering them a role in the present and providing new discursive contexts and meanings.
Convenor / Artistic director
Ana Catarina Pinho
Production assistant
Andrés Pachón
Photography
Natacha Suéli Pereira / Filipa Sampaio
ORGANISATION
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
SUPPORT
4th EDITION
IMAGE, ARCHIVE & CONFLICT
(Im)material Ecologies in the Digital Age
© Emeric Lhuisset
KEYNOTE & GUEST SPEAKERS
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Anna María Guasch
University of Barcelona, Spain
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Sara Callahan
Stockholm University, Sweden
Guest Speaker
Emeric Lhuisset
Visual Artist, France
Guest Speaker
Pedro Lagoa
Visual Artist, Portugal
Archivo Platform and the Archivo Papers Journal, are pleased to announce the 4th edition of Reframing the Archive – International Conference on Photography and Visual Culture.
The conference will address the theme 'Image, Archive and Conflict', aiming to critically investigate the relationship between technical images, the archive and conflict across past and present, long duration and real time, and the impact of digital media on the status and development of technical images as well as its consequences in historical conscience, present and future imaginaries.
Focusing on the production, circulation, and archiving of images, this conference will address two main perspectives: on the one hand, it aims to explore the materialities and immaterialities of archival production within the digital age in regard to contemporary critical appropriations through visual arts that address, assess and contest past and present conflicts, history’s repressed events and violations. On the other hand, it intends to examine the techno-aesthetics of datafication, understanding artistic strategies as potential sites for resisting and counter-acting current extractivist processes, which tend to capture and transform everyday life into data.
VIDEO RECORDING
FRIDAY, 22 September 2023
Keynote Speaker: Prof. Anna María Guasch
Guest Speaker: Emeric Lhuisset
Conference Speakers
Gustavo Balbela / Joana Brites / Paul Lowe / Sadie Barker / Elena Rosauro / María Piqueras-Pérez / Amalia Caputo Dodge / Daniela Cifuentes Acevedo / Manuel Padín Fernández / Bárbara Bergamaschi Novaes / Eduarda Kuhnert / Ana Peraica / Alessandra Fredianelli / Jane McArthur.
SATURDAY, 23 September 2023
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sara Callahan
Guest Speaker: Pedro Lagoa
Conference Speakers
Filipe Figueiredo / Laura Peralta / Jone Rubio Mazkiaran / Mayra Villavicencio Principe / Elián Stolarsky / Elisabeth R. Friedman / Paula Roush / Alexandre Gouin / Nicholas Andueza / Lucas Murari / Sebnem Cakalogullari / Shruti Nagpal.
ORGANISATION
IN COLLABORATION WITH
SUPPORT
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
ANA CATARINA PINHO (Convener)
MARTA LABAD
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
ANNALISA LAGANÀ - Università della Calabria, Italy
AROLA VALLS - University of Barcelona, Spain
LAURA SINGEOT - Reims University, France
MARIANNA TSIONKI - Leeds Arts University, United Kingdom
PABLO SANTA OLALLA - IHA, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal
TOMÁS ZARZA - Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
5th EDITION
ARCHIVAL PRACTICES IN
CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS
A MODEL AND A SOURCE
26-27 SEPT 2024
10:00am - 6:00pm (WEST)
VIRTUAL EVENT
Archivo Platform and the Archivo Papers Journal are pleased to announce the 5th edition of the Reframing the Archive – International Conference on Photography and Visual Culture.
Titled Archival Practices in Contemporary Visual Arts: A Model and a Source, the conference aims to gather contributions on archival art and archival research for contemporary art, considering them as two complementary aspects of a broad and complex field of investigation. On one hand, the archive serves as a structural model for artists from diverse backgrounds and engaged in various fields. On the other hand, authors' archives provide essential resources for historiographical studies on contemporary art, offering valuable information and direct testimonies. This dual focus necessitates engagement not only with the present but also with a relatively short historical span.
The 5th edition of the International Conference Reframing the Archive invites scholars at any stage of their careers, as well as visual artists and other professionals in the field of visual arts, to reflect on contemporary archive-based visual arts and contemporary archival sources and collections. We welcome proposals for 15-minute theory and practice-led presentations (followed by 15-minute panel discussion) from various disciplines, including: photography, cinema and new media, art history and theory, anthropology, museology, philosophy, cultural studies, visual and media studies, and fine and graphic arts. These presentations should offer an in-depth investigation into the conference topic.
To prepare your paper, please review the conference CFP and submit your proposal using our submission form.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Rein Jelle Terpstra
Visual Artist, Netherlands
After a residency period at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam), Rein Jelle Terpstra has devoted his practice to photography and the study of perception and reminiscence. Terpstra worked on an Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. for his project about the Robert F Kennedy Funeral Train project in 2017. His work is held in various collections, including the SFMOMA (San Francisco), MoMA Library (New York), and the Eye Film Museum (Amsterdam).
Linda Fregni Nagler
Visual Artist, Italy
Linda Fregni Nagler is a Milan based artist working primarily with the medium of photography. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 55th Venice Biennale, in museums both in Italy (MAXXI-Rome, Fondazione Olivetti-Rome, Triennale-Milan) and abroad (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe-Hamburg, Moderna Museet-Stockholm, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, ZKM-Karlsruhe). In 2014 she was awarded a scholarship at Iaspis in Stockholm. She published monographs with MACK (London) and Humboldt books (Milan).
REGISTRATION FOR CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
50% off for Archivo Platform members with active subscription plans.
Non-members: 40 EUR
REGISTRATION FOR EVENT ATTENDEES
Free registration for Archivo Platform members with active subscription plans.
Non-members: 5 EUR each day
For more information on membership subscriptions, please click here.
If you have any queries, please contact us at info@reframingthearchive.com
CALL FOR PAPERS
ARCHIVAL PRACTICES IN
CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS
A MODEL AND A SOURCE
Archivo Platform and the Archivo Papers Journal are pleased to announce the 5th edition of the Reframing the Archive – International Conference on Photography and Visual Culture.
Titled Archival Practices in Contemporary Visual Arts: A Model and a Source, the conference aims to gather contributions on archival art and archival research for contemporary art, considering them as two complementary aspects of a broad and complex field of investigation. On one hand, the archive serves as a structural model for artists from diverse backgrounds and engaged in various fields. On the other hand, authors' archives provide essential resources for historiographical studies on contemporary art, offering valuable information and direct testimonies. This dual focus necessitates engagement not only with the present but also with a relatively short historical span.
Since at least the 1960s, artists have been grappling with the concept of the archive, influenced by post-structuralist studies and early achievements in conceptual art. By employing tools of collection, classification, and indexing borrowed from archival theory and practice, artists of that (sociologically changing) era explored artistic languages capable of transcending the objecthood prevalent in post-World War II art. This exploration led to the development of an expressive form that remains relevant today. Indeed, much of contemporary art continues to yield compelling results when its semantic and formal contents are mediated by the archival model, particularly in genres such as photography, installation and performance. Despite the vast productivity of this global trend, critics are currently challenged with defining and contextualising archival art, often grappling with the complexities of its heterogeneity. In what perspective, with what tools, and according to what possible definitions or counter-definitions is it possible to historicise or reinterpret archival art today? What new proposals can contemporary artists offer by drawing inspiration from traditional paradigms of archival art or inventing new formal possibilities and codifications?
© Rein Jelle Terpstra
These questions underscore the extensive and complex dimension of contemporary archival art. However, While the archive serves as an artistic model, its contemporary incarnation as an institution offers a formidable resource for reconstructing recent art history. In recent years, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the author’s archive as a vital component in studies on the preservation of historical documents and art objects. Research efforts are expanding to develop criteria for the conservation and administration of contemporary art archives, describe case studies on the acquisition or museamisation of art document collections, and critically reinterpret artistic and artists' correspondence sourced from archives of artists, critics and scholars. Through such resources, the reconstruction of contemporary art gains detailed descriptive capacity, thanks to the archival documents containing first-hand information about artists' studios, relationships, contracts and exchanges with patrons, family memories, and personal research contained in notebooks, sketches, photographic negatives and other repertoires. How, then, do archives speak about contemporary art? What approaches can be taken to utilise visual archives as sources for art history? How are visual archives employed in constructing national narratives and how can they be decolonised? What does an overview of emerging case studies yield? How can institutions dedicated to preserving historic knowledge be further promoted?
© Linda Fregni Nagler
The 5th edition of the International Conference Reframing the Archive invites scholars at any stage of their careers, as well as visual artists and other professionals in the field of visual arts, to reflect on contemporary archive-based visual arts and contemporary archival sources and collections. We welcome proposals for 15-minute theory and practice-led presentations (followed by 15-minute panel discussion) from various disciplines, including: photography, cinema and new media, art history and theory, anthropology, museology, philosophy, cultural studies, visual and media studies, and fine and graphic arts. These presentations should offer an in-depth investigation into the conference topic. Please note that the conference will be conducted in English.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
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Interpreting contemporary artistic culture through archive material
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The history of contemporary art documented in archives: sources and resources
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Artists’ archives: a complex source for contemporary art history
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Digital sources of art history: new challenges for preservation and usability
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The contemporary Archive: history of studies and the role of artistic historiography
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The artistic and documentary value of photographic archives
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Critical pathways through the Archive
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Documentary art histories: old models and new questions
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Acquisition or purchase? The economic and cultural value of artist’s archives
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The hidden archive: anti-archives and antinomies of the archive
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Museography, topology, and architecture of art archives
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The archive as artistic practice: comparative analyses
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Curating exhibitions of archival art
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The archive in contemporary art: case studies
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Spaces, materials, and technologies in archival art
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Preserving archival art
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Decolonising visual archives
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Archival art and synaesthesia
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Social-political meanings of archival art
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Archives, performance, and body art
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Archival art and the linguistic turn in contemporary art
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Anti-archival experiences in Modern and contemporary art
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Meanings of archival art in artistic tendencies, movements, and groups
Following the conference, extended versions of the conference papers will be published in a forthcoming volume (2025) of the Archivo Papers - Journal of Photography and Visual Culture (ISBN 2184-9218). Conference speakers are welcome and encouraged to submit their articles, which will undergo a double-blind peer-review process.
SUBMITTING YOU PAPER
Paper proposals for the RTA 2024 should be submitted in English, following two possible formats: individual papers, or, pre-constituted panels.
:: Guidelines for individual papers submission
Individual presentations have a duration of 15 minutes.
Candidates are required to submit a proposal that includes:
— Author information (name, email, affiliation, ORCID)
— Paper title, abstract (250 words), and keywords (maximum 5),
— Bibliographical references (maximum 5),
— Author short biographical note (written in third person, 100 words).
:: Guidelines for pre-constituted panels submission
Submission of proposals for pre-constituted panels should consist of three papers.
The panel organiser is requested to submit a panel proposal that includes:
— Panel title and abstract (250 words)
— Information regarding the three speakers and their individual papers, as described in the guidelines for individual papers above.
Candidates should submit only one proposal only.
To submit your paper click on the tab 'SUBMIT PAPER'.
SELECTION PROCESS
The submitted proposals will undergo a blind peer-review process, and authors will be notified of the results of their proposals by July, 2024.
Selected conference speakers must confirm their participation in the conference and pay the registration fee within one week of receiving the selection notification.
The registration fee is 40 EUR. Archivo members with active subscription plans receive a 50% discount on the registration fee.
PUBLICATION
Selected speakers are invited to submit extended versions of theirs papers for publication.
Following a double blind peer-review process, the chosen authors will be featured in an edited volume of the scholarly open-access publication Archivo Papers Journal, scheduled for publication in 2025.
IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline for submission: June 15, 2024
Notification of selected speakers: July, 2024
Deadline for speakers registration/fee payment: one week after confirmation of acceptance
Conference: September 26-27, 2024
QUERIES
If you have any queries, please contact us at info@reframingthearchive.com
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Ana Catarina Pinho
IHA, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Annalisa Laganà
Uni. degli studi di Napoli Federico II / Uni. della Calabria, Italy
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
The Scientific Committee will be announced once the peer-review process is completed.
SUBMIT YOUR PAPER
PROGRAM
Reframing the Archive is an international conference that contributes to discussions in the fields of photography and visual culture. Organised annually by the Archivo Platform and the Archivo Papers journal, this event provides a dynamic platform for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to engage in dialogue and exchange ideas.
Originating in 2018 as a research seminar affiliated with the research Reframing the Archive project, which later led to the publication of a book by the same title, the event has since evolved into an international gathering, attracting speakers and participants from diverse continents. Each year, the conference serves as a platform for the latest academic research and research-oriented projects in visual arts and culture. Presented online or in a hybrid format, the event includes keynote and guest speakers of international reputation. The lineup of additional contributing speakers is chosen through a peer-review process by a rotating scientific committee, ensuring the quality and rigour of the proposals.
Beyond serving as a platform for scholarly discourse and exchange, the event is also crucial to foster further collaboration within Archivo Platform. Reframing the Archive brings together scholars, artists, and cultural practitioners, providing a lively environment for reflection, discussion, and networking. Furthermore, it serves as a vital nexus for identifying potential contributors to the corresponding volume of the Archivo Papers, presented in the year following the conference.
For queries, please contact us on info@reframingthearchive.com.
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