ARCHIVO READING GROUP

More-Then-Human-Histories

DR. BERGIT ARENDS

We will examine the contributions that photographic practices together with curatorial approaches deliver for an expanded understanding of archives and environmental history. We will further our understanding by discussing the following questions:

• How does photography serve to connect geographical places and moments in time?

• How is environmental history conveyed through lens-based practices?

• What is the role of collections, notably photographic documentation? How can these be activated and to which purpose?

• What are the methods that are required to engage with the history of nature culture through photography?

• How are resilience, mitigation and adaptation towards environmental changes addressed?

Dr Bergit Arends is a curator of contemporary art, museum professional, and academic with research interests in the intersections of research-based artistic practices, material culture, and environmental history within European and global contexts. Bergit’s monograph Photography, Ecology and Historical Change in the Anthropocene: Activating Archives (2024) is part of the Routledge series Photography, Place, Environment. Her doctoral research resulted among other in the award-winning publication Chrystel Lebas. Field Studies (2018). Bergit has curated many contemporary art projects for the natural history museums in London and Berlin. Bergit was British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Bristol and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where she is now a Teaching Fellow. She is Curatorial Research Fellow in the UK Research and Innovation Network Plus ‘Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China and Eurasia in Transition’. Bergit is also a Research Associate in the multinational CoastARTS programme, working together with artists to retrieve, to mobilise, and to shape new forms of environmental knowledge in relation to the dynamics of coastal zones.

More information:

Reading Materials are available at the Archivo Intranet.