Introduction: Following the Archival Turn

Abstract

The aim of the introductory essay is to define “the archival turn” in contemporary art and art criticism and to provide a historical context for the essays that follow. To this end, I discuss the appearance of archival materials and forms in recent art and exhibition practice as a late-stage manifestation of a postmodernist appropriational exercise, and sketch a brief overview of the key theoretical reflections informing artistic postmodernity and its institutional critique. The review considers the abstract nature of the archival principles elaborated in the writings of Michel Foucault and Walter Benjamin, published in English in the 1970s, so to explain the linguistic orientation of early postmodernist art practice and theory. Recent developments in archival art and art criticism are said to be distinguished by their emphasis on the material aspects of archival practice rather than the representational politics of the institution; the essays that follow exemplify this tendency.