Mariam Ghani. Still from What we left unfinished. In progress. Research project, installations, and feature film. Shown: discarded scraps from the feature film Gunah (1979), and newsreel (1978). Image courtesy of the artist.

Talk


The Archival Impulse: Collecting and Conserving the Moving Image in Asia

September 10, 2015
Museum of Modern Art

11 W 53rd St
New York, NY

Mariam Ghani. Still from What we left unfinished. In progress. Research project, installations, and feature film. Shown: discarded scraps from the feature film Gunah (1979), and newsreel (1978). Image courtesy of the artist.

Organized by Asia Art Archive, Collaborative Cataloging Japan, and MoMA’s C-MAP initiative, this three-panel event provided a forum to rethink and share the methods, philosophies, and challenges in archiving moving image and time-based media works in Asia.

DEVELOPING COLLECTIONS
Hiroko Tasaka (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography), Farah Wardani (National Gallery Singapore), Fang Lu (Video Bureau, Beijing and Guangzhou), and Stuart Comer (MoMA, New York) introduced collection strategies and compared archiving practice at their organizations in Japan, Singapore, China, and New York. The panel explored the impetus behind the development of these collections, the urgencies to which they responded, and how they expanded upon existing art historical narratives.

OPENING THE DIGITAL VAULT
David Smith (Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong), Sen Uesaki (Keio University Art Center, Tokyo), Alf Chang (ETAT Lab, Taipei), and Ben Fino-Radin (MoMA, New York) explored the transition from a static physical archive to a digital infrastructure that is open, nonlinear, web-like, and constantly evolving. As the modes of access continue to change, how do we effectively preserve moving image and time-based works in the digital age, and bring this material into a rhizomatic network of knowledge?

TRANSFORMING HISTORIES
Go Hirasawa (Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo), Mariam Ghani (Artist, New York), Huang Chien-hung (Taipei National University of Arts), and Jane DeBevoise (Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong and New York) discussed research projects that develop out of archival materials. Pointing to sources ranging from personal archives to commercial and state-sponsored media production, these projects attempted to expand and nuance ways of thinking about history, politics, and collective memory.

Admission is free with your RSVP. However, space is limited and seating will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive early to be guaranteed a seat.
RSVP: contact_c-map@moma.org

Asia Art Archive collects, preserves, and makes information on contemporary art of Asia easily accessible in order to facilitate understanding and research in the field. (www.aaa.org.hk, www.aaa-a.org)

Collaborative Cataloging Japan supports preservation and archival initiatives for Japanese postwar moving image works. (www.collabjapan.org)

MoMA’s Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) is the Museum’s cross-departmental research program on art in the global age, which currently focuses on Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. (post.at.moma.org)