ARCHIVES OF RESISTANCE AND REPAIR

The program of Kunstpavillon and Neue Galerie Innsbruck 2021/22 is entitled Dancing at the Edge of the World, alluding to the eponymous essay collection by Ursula K. Le Guin. In this, the science-fiction author outlines alternative social and societal realms of possibility that are not anchored in a colonial, patriarchal, and xenophobic narrative structure. The beginning is marked by two exhibitions: OPTIONS (Riccardo Giacconi, Kunstpavillon) and ARCHIVES OF RESISTANCE AND REPAIR (Shiraz Bayjoo, Maeve Brennan & Onyeka Igwe, Neue Galerie Innsbruck). The artistic works in both exhibitions question prevalent knowledge regimes and recount stories that are hardly considered in the powerful canons of history-making: While Riccardo Giaccconi develops references between the South Tyrolean resettlement implemented by Mussolini and Hitler and the current political climate in Europe; Shiraz Bayjoo, Maeve Brennan & Onyeka Igwe look for possible ways of re-evaluating historical materials from a decolonial, anti-imperialist perspective.

ARCHIVES OF RESISTANCE AND REPAIR

Presenting recent works of moving-image and installation art, Archives of resistance and repair explores artistic efforts to reconsider the meaning and function of historical records from a decolonial perspective. The exhibition locates sites where personal and public histories intersect, exposing fault lines between loss and recovery, entropy and rejuvenation, as well as fact and fiction. The work of Shiraz Bayjoo, Maeve Brennan, and Onyeka Igwe deconstructs powerful knowledge regimes by confronting documentary materials with new critical methodologies that foreground intimacy and embodied experience. Through their research-based practices, the artists remind us that the future can only be negotiated through reconciliation with our past and its lingering material remnants.

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Special Thanks to ED CROSS FINE ART | London.