When the Dust Has Settled: What Was the Archival Turn, and Is It Still Turning? 1

Abstract

The archive has been one of the most persistent buzz-words in the international artworld since the turn of the twenty-first century. While some claim that it has been used with such abandon that its usefulness is questionable at best, others view it as indicative of an important theoretical framework, necessary to make sense of some of the most important contemporary artworks and artistic practices. Several decades after the proposed “turn” to the archive, it is now possible to examine the phenomenon with the benefit of some historical distance, and ask: what was the archival turn, and is it still turning? The first part of this essay argues that an important explanation for the ubiquity of references to archives in the artworld was that elements of the notion theorized by philosophers, historians, and others lined up with a number of issues already of interest to artists and art writers. Two such intersecting interests are considered: first, the focus on institutional structures and a break with traditional forms of history, and second, a concern with critical research practices. In the essay’s second part, the author takes stock of how the archive has been rearticulated in artistic practices that deal with some of the most pressing concerns of the present moment such as the socio-political climate of post-truth; engagement with microhistories and local knowledges; looming environmental catastrophe; and current conditions of AI assisted online surveillance.