Plattform: On Maintaining Circulation

The afternoon brings together artists, researchers and archivists to think about how histories and narratives are circulated, recorded and archived, and how the power structures that maintain this circulation could be interrupted for other voices to enter. Gathering in a temporary sound studio set up by artists Maia Urstad and Anton Kats inside Bergen Kunsthall, the participants explore questions such as: How does the technology available to us determine what voices, stories and histories are shared? Who gets to design it and who gets to use it? Whose voices are included and whose voices are left out?

• ‘Queer voices in the archive’ : Hannah Gillow-Kloster, Skeivt arkiv (Norway’s national queer archive), Bergen.
  On archiving and making visible queer voices, which have been silent (and silenced) for huge parts of Norwegian history.
• Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa
  On the international research project ‘Women on Aeroplanes’ (2017- ). Exploring how women of colour are systematically marginalised in official histories of anti-colonialism, pan-Africanism and feminism.
• ‘Distant Voices Still Live’ : Maia Urstad
  On the temporary nature of communication technologies – who builds it, uses it and for what means.
• ‘After Joy’: Anton Kats
  On the multiple narratives of hope, loss and alienation of workers on ‘Satellite Island’, an area built around one of Europe’s largest shipbuilding wharfs in Kherson city, Ukraine – where Kats was born.
• ‘Stickiness’ : Andrea Francke + Eva Rowson / Wish you’d been here
  On why certain voices ‘stick’ in historisations of collective projects and how different types of labour (from washing up to being an artist) are valued – and with what consequences.

The symposium is available for re-run through the live stream recording below.

Photo Courtesy of the organisation