This collaborative artistic-research project, dedicated to working in/with archives, recognizes imperial and colonial violence underlying conventional archival practices and reflects on the possibility of transforming this violence into something generative. It extends critical attention towards the relationship between conducting artistic research dedicated to archives and performing the work of archiving in artistic ways, both of which derive from queer studies, decolonial studies, applied human rights, and critical archival studies. It proposes a process-oriented approach that involves collaboratively practicing and theorizing on artistic-research methods with the aim of building a sustainable Vienna-based network of artists and institutions working with archives. A key element for the above is technology, employed as a tool that enhances the project’s accessibility, as a format of artistic research, and as an alternative modality of collaboration.

The project’s core operational strategy converges two motivations: to conceptualize archives as relational entities and to recognize the epistemological shift towards practicing research as art. Methodologically, this strategy is defined by two intersecting agendas, described by Eve Tuck and C. Ree in their "A Glossary of Haunting": of "righting the wrongs," which expresses a call for ethics and justice in archive-based research, and of "writing the wrongs," which investigates possible modes of representation and narration for archival research. Along this proposal, the project practices and negotiates artistic-research methods of archival research by continuously updating its methodology on the basis of the knowledge generated through its methods, outcomes, and collaborations, and by fostering a network of artists and institutions that research, theorize on, and perform arts-based archival research.

For this purpose, the project employs a few methods, concentrated within its "Cartography," the knowledge repository and web-based platform, which, together with its design, coding, launch, and updates, functions as a research journal and a space where the artistic-research production is performed, documented, and discussed. This includes Co_Labs, a three-part "laboratory" that hosts collaborative artistic-research practices by inviting researching artists and institutions to do critical work towards the project’s projected outcomes (exhibition, book publication, workshop), as well as Net_Works, a web-based residency program that invites specific positions in sound art, writing, and community-building work to critically engage with and contaminate the intended course of action.

An Archive, a Body, an Album, and a Story

Public program (every Wednesday): 05.-26.09.2023
Exhibition: 02.-06.10.2023

Throughout September, a group of artists and researchers will occupy the space of Exhibit Eschenbachgasse, every week in a slightly different configuration, in the context of Rafał Morusiewicz and Guilherme Maggessi’s three-year research project W/r/i/gh/ting Archives through Artistic Research (PEEK | AR716).

"An Archive, a Body, an Album, and a Story," the title of this month-long encounter, points to the focus of each week: a Cruising Archive, a Fantasy Body, a Ghost Album, and a Glitch Story. Pointing to this year’s focus on personal archives, each week is informed by the participant’s respective practices and will bring attention to a different set of topical issues, research strategies, and artistic practices through group readings, exercises, and discussions.

In order to facilitate a dialogue between the group working in the space, the public, and colleagues based in Vienna working with methods and topics close to our own, we will convene public sessions every Wednesday, featuring contributions by members of our research group, sharing sessions by invited guests, as well as screenings and listening sessions of works that inform our project.

By the end of the month, Exhibit Eschenbachgasse will become an archive of its own, gleaning the remainders of these exchanges and encounters. We aim to display this archive throughout the first week of October by shifting the space’s logic from a project/working space into an exhibition.

We will keep you updated about our public events and the exhibition’s run through this website, our instagram profile (@kuntsverein) and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna’s channels. Stay tuned.

Project participants: Tonči Kranjčević Batalić, Vlad Beronja, Josip Knežević, Guilherme Maggessi, Mika Maruyama, Rafał Morusiewicz, Ivana Šerić, Selina Shirin Stritzel, Petar Vranjković, and David Wilhelm.

Dr. Rafał Morusiewicz, PhD (they/them, no pronoun), is a Vienna-based researching visual artist, curator, and writer. Morusiewicz is the author of two doctoral theses: a “PhD-in-Practice” project at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, dedicated to the “queer remixing” of Polish “communist” film, and a doctoral dissertation at the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Applied Social Sciences, which proposes and performs queering strategies on several early-21st century Polish cinema films. Their artistic-research practice has led to several experimental films, screened at film festivals, presented as installations at exhibition venues, and programmed at online platforms in and outside Vienna. For over two decades, Morusiewicz has taught courses in artistic research, film studies, academic writing, and ESL at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (the “Vienna Master of Arts in Applied Human Rights” program), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Webster Vienna Private University, and Warsaw’s SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Since 2020, Morusiewicz has collaborated with Guilherme Maggessi as Maggessi/Morusiewicz. By employing tools and strategies stemming from their diverse backgrounds (design, found-footage film, performance, sampling, stitching, silkscreening), the artistic duo explores modes of creating archives and fabulating futures in expanded and intimate ways. The duo has presented artworks, curated exhibitions and screenings, performed, and showed their films in several institutions and independent spaces, such as Belvedere 21 (Vienna, AT), Exhibit Eschenbachgasse (Vienna, AT), Kunstraum Lakeside (Klagenfurt, AT), VBKÖ (Vienna, AT), wuk performingarts (Vienna, AT), SPEDITION (Bremen, DE), queerANarchive (Split, HR), and film place collective (London, UK).

Guilherme Maggessi (he/him) is an art director and graphic designer, whose practice extends and expands into the fields of academic research, fine arts, and performance. For the past 10 years, he has worked in multiple contexts: advertisement and consultancy agencies, from big brands and companies to a self-owned graphic design studio developing works for small-to-medium businesses and NGOs.

After moving to Vienna in 2019, Maggessi has reoriented his practice around academic research, fine arts, and performance. Currently finishing his M.A. in Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Maggessi further develops his interest in the construction of othering and orientalizing images. Parallel to his studies, he has curated exhibitions (The Poiesis of Composting, 10.2021-02.2022; No Final Version, 09.2022-10.2022; QM&A Artist Collective 2022, 10.2022), has done teaching (Curatorial Studies, SS 2021, IKW, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), and has worked with arts-education institutions on projects within artistic research (Confronting Realities, PEEK | FWF, Filmakademie Wien, 2022-2024) and critical diversity (Tricky Moments, mdw, 2021-2023).

Since mid-2020, Maggessi has been one half of Maggessi/Morusiewicz, a Vienna-based duo that researches, makes films, curates, performs, and art-works together. The duo has presented artworks, curated exhibitions and screenings, performed, and showed their films in several institutions and independent spaces, such as Belvedere 21 (Vienna, AT), Exhibit Eschenbachgasse (Vienna, AT), Kunstraum Lakeside (Klagenfurt, AT), VBKÖ (Vienna, AT), wuk performingarts (Vienna, AT), SPEDITION (Bremen, DE), queerANarchive (Split, HR), and film place collective (London, UK).