ongoing since 2022
Collaboration between Mika Ebbing and Jule Roehr
Artistic research, lecture performance, floor projection (3h19min)
Since September 7, 2022, Mika Ebbing and Jule Roehr have been going through the files of section 8 in the archive of the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK). Page by page, from folder number "8/1" to "8/686". For the most part, section 8 contains documents from the years 1929-1939, including some earlier and later files, relating to the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst, the predecessor institution of today's faculty of Fine Arts at the UdK. So far we have seen about a third of the files.
In the files the rapid transformation of the institution from 1933 onwards can be traced on the basis of administrative procedures. The process of our artistic research in the archive however also focusses on the UdK's subsequent handling of this period in the post-war era until the present day.
Since then, we have been leafing through the files chronologically, noting processes in the finding aid and trying to understand the context of the various entries. We sift through the files in pairs, constantly discussing the content and the research itself. Originally, we assumed that we would become faster over time and that we would be able to categorise and record what we found more easily as our knowledge increased. In fact, we are becoming slower and slower. The further we browse, the more closely interwoven the various aspects become and the more questions arise.
What does it mean to deal with documents in their original, physical form? What can be found in the archive at all, what becomes apparent? What has been lost or has escaped documentation? What does an art institution need in order to reflect on it's own history? How can this process of reflection be anchored in the institution in the long term? How can critical perspectives be given space within the institution without co-opting their approaches? What forms of institutional care could emerge as a result?
Exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
In the group exhibition "Napping in Density" at KW, we tried to reflect on the process of research together with the visitors.
The video with a total duration of about 2.5 hours consists of numerous clips, each 1-3 minutes long. The clips are sourced from our video documentation, which always runs parallel to our work in the archive. You can hear the sound of turning pages. We continuously change the installation by placing books and printouts of texts that we read in dialogue with the archive in the projection or by changing the arrangement of the objects. The clips are interrupted by 10-second black images. For a moment, only the books and papers that are physically in the room and distributed on the projection surface can be seen. With the projection onto the exhibition floor, onto a semi-transparent surface that allows the structure of the wooden floor to shine through, we refer to the specific place in which we find ourselves. We are present and in conversation with visitors for most of the duration of the exhibition.
