Symposium: Untold Narratives - Artists’ Archives and Estates

This year Austria's largest gallery festival will examine the social practices of storytelling, the manifestation of memories – and explore its core institution: the archive. The program of this year's Curated By is also dedicated to the topic of artists’ archives and estates. Two new formats will take place as part of the festival’s Fokustage.The symposium provides a public forum to investigate the relationship between art objects, cultural institutions (galleries, museums), art historians and universities.

It builds on Noit Banai’s notion of “untold narratives” and delves into questions such as: What should artists consider when they archive their work today in the digital age? How and why do certain artistic bodies of work [do not] become significant to cultural institutions, such as galleries and museums? And what surplus value does a critical and selective practice of analysing and historicising contemporary art add to art objects and collections?

The panels and the concluding roundtable discussion of the symposium address established practices of institutionalising and historicising contemporary art to envision more symbiotic collaborations across the actors of the art world. The day will focus on the following issues: the practicalities of archiving; the politics of historicising and collecting; and the maintenance, circulation, and exhibition of artists’ pre-estates.

Keynote by art historian, curator and critic Noit Banai (Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna).

The full program will follow by the end of the summer.