Archive Books
Our impulse to publish stems from the desire to disseminate stories for the subversive potential they can yield, creating cracks in dominant narratives, fleeing accounts of history with a capital H and turning to the power of the fragment. We conceive archives as sites, institutions, repositories of knowledge/power, systems of thought and violence, but also as counter-practices of collecting, preserving, disseminating and organizing experiences of resistance.
Through a publishing practice grounded in collective, transdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations, Archive is invested in un-weaving repressive narratives and reclaiming the archive itself as a tool which no longer categorizes but rather continuously un-fixes, de-archives and re-archives through non-hegemonic models.
There has been a recent surge of global interest in Korean arts and popular culture, as evidenced by neologisms such as K-pop, K-drama and K-classic. Korean contemporary art has also captured the attention of a growing number of international biennales, exhibitions and fairs, attracting an international audience to Korea’s local artists and the scene they comprise. This is where our questions begin: despite a growing sense of nationalism in the global political stage, through a post-postmodernist lens, national categorization appears anachronistic. Is the prefix ‘K’ then a mere political ploy and capitalist commodity? If ‘K’ were to be removed, on the other hand, how else might we attempt at providing a portrait of the changing currents in Korea’s art scene? Is collective categorization or generalization ever worthwhile, and if so, to what extent can it be done without reducing or marginalizing individuals?
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Genocide in Namibia is an especially sensitive matter—its history has at times been ignored, underestimated, or even denied outright.
In the artistic documentary Fraitaxtsēs sores tsîn ge ra≠gâ - Ondjembo yo Null Vier, Ixmucané Aguilar has worked in close collaboration with Nama and OvaHerero people who vividly evoke memories and rituals of mourning caused by human loss and land dispossession under Imperial Germany’s violent occupation.
What potential do embodied practices offer for emancipatory movements? How can community be created through these practices, and what responsibilities does this entail? What role does the body play in the preservation and transmission of knowledge?
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