Broadcasting the archive in Barcelona: Analysing the side effects of Arte Útil projects
Keywords: Arte Útil, public space, instrumentalization, gentrification, failure, institutional repurpose, side effect, Do-It-Yourself
Abstract: ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the potentiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organizations in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to understand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
Broadcasting the Archive #9, visit to BioBui(L)t Txema, Barcelona, 2015
You can get the paper here
