The fourth of the Procesos de archivo /Archivalprocess expert working sessions took place at Intermediæ in Madrid. The working sessions are to enable the core curatorial team to gain knowledge and experience. The sessions are closed but the raw resources will be on-line soon.

Archivist Sue Breakell lead the sessions. In the first, Sue recounted her experiences of working in different archives, and narrated the history of archiving. And in the second we refined the mapping of the knowledge ecology of intermediae, to start restructuring the server and implementing an archival practice..........

I wrote into Sue’s presentation as she spoke, following are the tweaked notes....

Museums and Archives always exist in the present, yet their endless ‘waiting without forgetting’ locates them in our imagined past.

Our own recent past has been marked by an increasing number of new museums, mushrooming around the globe.  The museum, or the idea of the museum - like a parable from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges - has become the space to preserve our culture; the museum is the ideal destination of everything. Re-found objects from the distant, and not so distant past are restored and preserved there, new technologies compete for inclusion in museums of design and industry.

To enter the museum is to enter the past of the present, and participate in the value of things.

The first of the Procesos de archivo/ Archivalprocess. 'expert working sessions' took place at Intermediæ in Madrid. The working sessions are to enable the core curatorial team to gain knowedge and experience. The sessions are closed but resources will be on-line soon.

Artist and amateur archivist Jorge Blasco Gallardo, founder of Culturas de Archivo and Amateurarchivist lead the sessions.

In the first, Jorge gave an extraordinary 5 hour tour-de-force presentation on the history, politics and philosophy of the idea of the archive.

I wrote into Jorge’s presentation as he spoke, following are the tweaked notes....

I'm working on a research project with Intermediæ entitled Procesos de archivo/ Archivalprocess.

Intermediæ is an experimental programme for contemporary creative practice developed by the Cultural Department of the City Government of Madrid. Active for 2 years, Intermediae is a process, through which they are constructing an immanent institution. Through their development they have evolved three structural axes: creation as a means for research and production, process for continual experimentation and reflection, and participation as a commitment to their publics.

Procesos de archivo/ Archivalprocess is a reflection on, and a set of artistic projects that explore the construction of an archive of Intermediæ's activities. How can we assemble, present and make available to the public, an archive of an institution conceived as process, and committed to participation?

We understand that public Archives, like collections in Museums and Galleries are built with the property of multiple authors and previous owners. But unlike the collection, there is no imperative within the conventional logic of the archive, to exhibit, display or interpret its holdings.