Archive as Personal and Public

An artist’s archive is the DNA of who an artist is. This was a theme that came up throughout our archival visits, beginning with our visit to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in New York. Rauschenberg collected and kept things for his archive that shared a certain narrative of his life; including the narrative of how throughout Rauschenberg’s life, he had relationships that would be identified as queer. However, he requested that his sexuality not be discussed in the context of his artistic career.

On our first archive visit in Rome, we visited the MAXXI Museum, which had a wide-ranging collection. When asking the archivists specifically about their collection policy relating to “personal” materials, they shared that they return materials that they do not deem as related to the artwork. This was interesting to me for several reasons. This approach is different from how I've seen “personal” artifacts handled in archives in the US; archivists will often pull out these materials and mark them as “restricted.” This provides the possibility of making personal items available to researchers on a case-by-case basis. 

What I found most interesting came up during our visits to the Franco Angeli and Elisabetta Catalano archives: how do you deem something as personal versus public when the artist is no longer alive? What makes an artifact available to the public or kept private/returned to the family/original owner? It brings into question what information is relevant about an artist’s life to understand their work. For Angeli, it is his daughter who decides what the public gets access to regarding her father’s life. And for Elisabetta Catalano, the staff at her foundation do not digitize or make available photographs that they believe to not be a part of her professional work. As said during our visit to the Franco Angeli archive, “Each archive is different because each artist is different.” There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but it is something I thought about throughout our visits to archives.

Outside Consumerism and Capitalism

While not always, an artist’s work is often linked with their financial success or saleability. One of the aspects of the archival visits that stood out to me is how an artist's archive doesn’t always exist within the confines of consumerism or capitalism. While visiting the ICCD on the fourth day of our trip to Rome, I was struck by Francesca Fabbiani’s vision of utilizing public funding to create interesting original artwork with contemporary artists. I found this to be a very exciting way to use public funding to flip the idea of creating marketable artwork on its head. 

Additionally, the first item that was shown to us at the MAXXI museum was a print by Andy Warhol signed by his gallerist at the time as a gift. This brings up the question of when something is an artwork versus a document. That print is likely very valuable; however, because it is now in an archival collection, it is functioning outside of capitalism in the same way it would if it was a part of a personal collection or held by a gallery that may put it up for sale. 

The archive that emphasized this idea the most for me was the Pieroni Gallery. It was an amazing opportunity to meet the owners and see their space after learning about them at the MAXXI museum and in the documentary, La Rivoluzione Siamo Noi. Understanding that their whole ethos as a gallery was about creating opportunities for artists to showcase their works, usually, artworks which could not be sold,  rather than with a profit in mind was extremely interesting (and so much in contrast with how many contemporary galleries function today). 

Their project, No Man’s Land, which is a 2-hour drive from Rome and showcases outdoor artwork, is free and open to the public.  This is another example of how an organization can operate outside of the confines of capitalism. They have been successfully creating opportunities for people to engage with artwork and archives for free for a long period and it was so interesting to witness.

Bringing New Life to the Archive

Throughout the various archives we visited, I was often in awe of how these individuals and foundations were finding ways to give new life to the concept of an archive and to the artists’ work that was a part of it. The artist residency program founded at the ICCD was extremely motivating and exciting to me. Francesca Fabbiani’s vision to work with contemporary artists and invite them into the collection to conduct research and work with the materials and continue to create new work that can also be added to the archival collection was inspiring. She spoke about how she intended to shake the dust off the archive and to wake it up. I think this is such a thoughtful and impactful way to do that, while also bringing in viewers to the archive who may not otherwise have an awareness of it. 

Similarly, at the MAXXI Museum, I was extremely impressed with how they are incorporating the archive into so many of the museum’s exhibitions. This struck me given how different it is to my experience both working within and being a visitor to museums in the US. The archivists' discussion of how important it is to them to create so many different access points for a viewer to enter into the work is something that I believe should be implemented at other museums. This also encourages wider community engagement with the archive as an integral part of the institution. 

One of the projects we encountered at the Pieroni Gallery is their sound archive, MPDS Audio Archive. One of the staff members that we spoke to provided an in-depth overview of the project and what projects exist online. It was interesting to listen to information about how the archive is open for people to utilize the sounds. Additionally, they work with other artists, archives and individuals to create new sound projects and oral histories, creating ongoing additions of work and bringing new life to the audio archive.