Mobile, process-oriented, and guaranteed incomplete:
the Culture and Social Movement Archive
Archives are usually spaces filled to the ceiling with books, files, or the like. They are characterized by fixed addresses, good arrangement, and the effort to treat topics as exhaustively as possible. Our "Culture and Social Movement Archive" meets none of these criteria: it is subjective, mobile, temporary, and each time different from the last.
The archive is thought up, discussed, and made by a group of cultural producers, social scientists, and journalists. We are all interested in cultural practices which get involved in social conditions in a committed and critical way. A sample of themes: symbolic and image-politics, reappropriation of urban space, protest culture, poster design, social utopias, precarization. We document concepts from the fields of architecture, contemporary art, music, political theory, activism, economics, and literature.
This material is not only collected and made available to interested people; it also undergoes "applications" whereby themes are drawn from the archive and treated in depth. Videos, music, books, and copies serve as a springboard for events and discussions. The archive invites visitors to rummage about, read, reject, or work, as well as to discuss what is practically useful among the various historical and contemporary sources. It remains open to extension through visitor input.
Up to now, the archive has made its way to
- the First Social Forum in Germany in Erfurt, July 21-24, 2005
- the We Can Do It Otherwise! Visions and Models for a Future Society event week at the Pavillon Cultural Center in Hannover, September 2-10, 2005
- the frei-räume[n]! event by Initiative Zukunft Bethanien in Berlin, February 25-26, 2006
- the Autonomous Trimester event at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, September 21-25, 2007
- the BUKO32 congress in Lueneburg, May 21-24, 2009
And several smaller engagements such as
- a video screening on the historical Chomsky/ Foucault debate at the Buttclub Hamburg, February 3rd, 2007
- two discussions within the exhibition series „Reihe: Ordnung“ at the Kunstverein Harburg, January 20. and February 14., 2007