To Think of Our Archive!

To think about the archive, how?

The Multi Studios Foundation posed a general question to us as actors in artistic production around Sudan: How can we archive our production in a way that is accessible to everyone and easily circulated, while also considering the use of technology and alternative presentation methods that people are turning to? It was challenging to contemplate the lost archive, especially since the question arose at a time when we had lost our main headquarters in Khartoum. We then relocated to different cities, carrying “our headquarters” as a collection of memories, photos, and videos.

There was a kind of archiving that we did as an automatic act, as we wanted to preserve the memories of what we created during the years of working in the artistic scene. In addition to the events and people who appeared in the pictures, there were artistic works and critical writings, as well as the intellectual space that was formed through discussions.

We discovered that the institution also has its official archive that represents it. It is far from being personal, as it does not represent the memories that we have formed as individuals as part of our work process. The archive is also part of the memories of others who continuously reference it. Participation was the basic essence of the work we did.

Between the institution and the personnel, the question of archiving appears as a site through which we can think about its various levels. Where we see the institution and its location, we find a kind of specialized archiving, but it still has some personal connection to us. In our private archive, we find that there is a positive kind of tension that leads us to look towards the possibility of creating an artistic archive as a collaborative effort with other institutions. At the same time, this tension arises from the current situation we are experiencing due to the significant loss of the physical structure of the content through which we form the archive. We miss the architecture:

Thinker Achille Mbebe points out that the archive derives part of its power from the issue of architecture. He says: “The archive derives its status and power from this intertwining between the building and the documents. The archive has no status or authority without its architectural dimension, which includes the physical space of the building site, the motifs, and columns, the arrangement of the rooms, the organization of the files, the maze of corridors, a level of discipline, dim lighting, and austerity that gives the place something of the nature of a temple and a cemetery. Certainly, the city of Khartoum represents for us part of the archive of human history. In it, personal histories intersect with its history as a city founded according to a precise English format except it was reproduced during its social life.

Thinking of it as a city that was founded twice (1824) and then (1910), we see that it is our archive whose architecture we miss, as there cannot be an archive without architecture, so the loss comes here in the image of the city from which we left, which we carry as memory/images, so part of the idea of the archive is missing, therefore. The technology question raised by Reem was important, as we will not be able to reach Khartoum as a physical space in which we can create a complete archive. Here, we will not only archive the artistic work but also the context in which it was produced.

Khartoum, which we have worked on in two projects (A Failed Bank) and (Extended Cities), and we are trying to create the third during this year, will be inaccessible except through the individual position of the reader/viewer, as this matter is not only related to the city but also to the social memory of the citizens. Therefore, the archiving process is not abstract and based on desires/self-motives, but it is also in our work that we try to think about, it is fundamentally linked to the self and the association that we have made towards Khartoum as a currently lost space, in addition to the temporal necessity of archiving, as a compensatory issue for us to express the location of the city.

If the fall of Khartoum is the main reason for considering the archive, then the lack of the archive is the next factor we consider when trying to define Sudanese art. It’s important to examine the artistic archive outside of official archiving and focus on the personal aspect.

For the artist to think about the archive:

In his interview published for Revolutionary Generation Dialogues, Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Bob— a Sudanese thinker and artist— points out that the absence of an artistic archive is strange and incomprehensible. There is an archive of artists and an archive of exhibitions, in addition to schools that formed different waves of artistic periods, but she did not care about her archive. There are large groups of artists in Sudan for whom there is no archive.

This applies to those in the faculties of arts and social sciences, as there is an oral history that has not been written down, and this is what Evan Pritchard pointed out: “The Sudanese must write their oral history so that they do not lose it.”  But no one paid attention to this matter.

Pope says that the artists were the ones who betrayed art and its spirit, because they did not care about artistic institutions, and they were the closest people to their institutions being more prosperous, and this was for several reasons. First, their jobs within the state were exceptionally large, and its institutions as well as the events sponsored by the state were. There is a chance that the two formations will have roles within the state, as these traditions exist in Egypt. We have a problem with the nature of the modern structure of Sudan as a state and as a society.

Pope places the responsibility on the artist, but we also see that the reality of the visual artist and thinking from within his conditions may excuse him in this aspect. Therefore, it is also important to address the financial condition that governs the artist’s work, as there are no institutions that can provide funding to establish their archive.

It may also be important to look at the experience of the archive as a tradition in Sudan, as Sudanese art lacks a dimension related to the issue of archiving. We see many people who build an artistic system and leave a great legacy, but the archive dimension is missing, as there is no reference to which we can return to look. At their works or knowledge of the formative nature of certain periods.

The absence of archives from the state may be influential, but the issue of personal archiving must also be considered, in addition to its absence from artistic institutions as well.