First public presentation of Open Archive during Dutch Design Week 2019First public presentation of Open Archive during Dutch Design Week 2019

In the Open Archive exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum, the following works are being shown:

Oana Clitan

Oana Clitan's project uses the rhetoric of historical and current news broadcasting to speculate on how information will be presented in the future. The installation explores a scenario in which electrical devices are damaged, so that it is impossible to produce new visual content. The only means of visual expression in this world is through scarce, salvaged archival materials, which the government uses to inform citizens about the latest developments in the crisis.

Guy Königstein

Like frozen spaces from times gone by, silent meeting rooms, empty staircases, dusty shelves, long corridors and closed doors provide a stage for uninvited visitors. Guy Königstein assumes the role of one unexpected guest or harmless intruder, wandering through the archive's maze in search of connections and ways of belonging. Opening drawers and files, he asks the question: 'Dear past, what would it take to throw you off balance?'

Donna Verheijden

The Stolen Archive is a speculative thriller. The video installation makes connections between the stories and events hidden in the archives of Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Verheijden draws upon the collections as repositories of images, audio clips and objects that can be used as characters, props and sets.

Het Nieuwe Instituut​ preserves one of the world's largest architecture archives and the collection of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision contains more than a million hours of historical audio-visual material. Both institutions are making more and more of their collections available under open licenses, so that they can be employed for creative re-use, among other things. Through the Open Archive project, these institutions are sharing their digital heritage collections with a new generation of makers. The project is an experiment in making digital heritage accessible online, thus making it available for artistic re-use of, with room for a variety of creative, technical and copyright interpretations. Such reuse of digital collections in museums and archives generates new narratives in potentially surprising, innovative forms.

The three makers were selected for the Open Archive via an open call, and given seven months to develop an autonomous work. Following this first presentation during Dutch Design Week, the works will be exhibited at Het Nieuwe Instituut from 14 November 2019 to 26 January 2020.

19-27 October 2019
Van Abbemuseum, Werksalon,
Bilderdijklaan 10, 5611 NH Eindhoven
Opening hours 11:00 - 18:00

More information and tickets via www.openarchief.com

This project is made possible with support from the Mondriaan Fund.

For more information and press photos please contact Silvie van Oost by email at s.vanoost@hetnieuweinstituut.nl or by telephone on +31 (0) 657 981 388.