archiv//archiv

Düsseldorf, 2026

A project at the Düsseldorf Film Museum Archive and the Filmdepot, Düsseldorf-Benzenbergstraße.

Archives are places of selective “preservation”—they are part of a cultural practice that has preserved the results and works of human creativity for future generations for thousands of years. The question of “what is not in the archive” highlights the fact that archives always also represent socio-political spaces.

So what constitutes negotiated consensus—and what will no longer be accessible—at least not within an institutional framework …

Archive // Archive is an approach that, on the one hand, transforms the visibility of areas not accessible (to a general audience) into an artistic endeavor that raises questions about the practice of display and contexts.

In the cinematic context, the following are addressed: amateur film; the eclectic practice of collage in Guy Debord’s 221 Theses/Phrases from The Society of the Spectacle, 1967; questions are posed regarding a form of politicized public sphere—he writes about “the heart of the irrealism of real society!” - this raises the question of the analytical film—a form of filmmaking that critically looks over its own shoulder while making film—as in the case of Jean-Luc Godard;

Archive // Archive establishes a connection to the films not on display and their playback devices, which in the storage facility resemble a “racing standstill”—cooled and stacked in a state of apparent calm, arranged on shelves that could set the world ablaze—if only these very devices could once again project light and the diaphanous images, when illuminated, cast shadows onto our retinas…

Archive // Archive also shows what cannot be seen!

-MK