Cologne (1989-1996/98): A spectral anarchive
With Nancy Garín, Antoine Silvestre, Aimar Arriola, Nancy Garín, Linda Valdés
In 2023, the ADKDW welcomes two collectives to Cologne: Espectros de lo Urbano (Nancy Garín and Antoine Silvestre) and Anarchivo Sida (Aimar Arriola, Nancy Garín and Linda Valdés). During their joint residency in the city on the Rhine, they will be able to continue their research on life with HIV/AIDS in Cologne between 1989 and 1996 thanks to support from the Kunststiftung NRW.
With a decolonial approach, Espectros de lo Urbano critically analyses how the city (the urban) is constructed. Anarchivo Sida has been researching the cultural dimension of the HIV/AIDS crisis for a decade, focusing on cases from the 'south'. Both projects share an interest in revisiting past processes to understand life in the present –its production of contemporary bodiness and the articulation of possible alternatives. The methodology of the two collectives is based on the research of images and narratives.
For their stay in Cologne, they propose to review countercultural experiences from the period 1989-1996/98, a key period in the recent history of Germany and the city, from an intersectional perspective. Methodologically, the two collectives understand the residency as an editorial workshop, lasting for several months, in which to bring together testimonies, experiences and documents that are disparate but form part of the same collective memory. The investigation aims at formulating a dialogue between the archive, the urban layers of Cologne and fictional narratives.
Funded by the Kunststiftung NRW.
