Decades have passed since the opening of what remained of the secret archives in Eastern European countries, followed by Derrida's archive fever. Yet archives are more present in our lives than ever before. They have become digital, while the rise of the platform model has made it possible to concentrate their control in the hands of a few. We now communicate, interact and form our identities in corporate digital archives on a daily basis. Whether it's Google, Instagram, Tiktok, X or their ilk, their vast databases, programmed to capture every digital footprint, offer themselves as model archives of our time. This begs the question: is there any space left for artists to work with the archive and the platform as a medium without reproducing the logic of the extractive economy? Drawing on the history of Monoskop.org, Dušan Barok will share some thoughts and reflections on this question.

8.11.2023, 19:00 CET, online (click for the Zoom link)

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DUŠAN BAROK

Dušan Barok’s work is concerned with digital culture, memory studies, and activism. He is founding editor of Monoskop.org, a platform for arts and studies, and has been involved in collectives such as 3/4, Multiplace and La Société Anonyme. His practice includes working with collectives and organisations on various archive, platform and research projects. In 2022, together with Ivana Rumanová, he organised the exhibition programme We Have Never Been Closer at tranzit.sk in Bratislava, presenting contemporary artistic responses to the transformation period of the 1990s in Central Europe. More recently, he was part of the curatorial team and catalogue contributor for the major exhibition Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s-1980s, prepared by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

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