Constructing Personal Archives | व्यक्तिगत अभिलेखागार का निर्माण
The onset of the pandemic had inspired us to engage with many of you and initiate a wide variety of projects in family archiving. Those three online workshops guided us towards the need for an exposure series, curated around understanding creative possibilities in archiving.
But each time, we realised that time was not enough!
Migration, Memory and the Material
Engendering the Archive
This panel brings together speakers from South Asia who will discuss the urgencies that drove them to document diverse materials, from photographs, recipes, and everyday objects, to maps and stories, as modes of collective remembering. Munira is building an expansive photographic archive of Sri Lanka, Shobhna is in the process of constructing an archive of queer women in India, Priyanjoli opens up her grandfather’s archive to showcase a history of women in Bengali cinema, Soumya traces a food history through the life of her great grandmother, and Vallabhi records the memories of her grandmother. 
Stories Wandering Out
This session will look at the fleeting, evolving nature of archives––outside the conventional modes of preservation, how do objects, spaces, histories, ephemera wander out into the world? The presentations will examine the story of absence of a grandfather or the provenance of documents or a complete absence of visual culture.As the editors in the introduction of Walter Benjamin's Archive Images, Text, Signs, say the collector does not emphasize the usefulness of objects ** "but studies and loves them as scene, the stage of their fate". This panel will look at the multi-layered destinies and futures of the five projects and their materials.
*The Story, Around the Corner by Naomi Shihab Nye**Walter Benjamin's Archive Images, Text, Signs: Edited by Ursula Marx, Gudrun Schwarz, Michael Schwarz, Erdmut Wizisla
Personal, Public, Political
Can an archive be objective? An inquiry into the relationship between the archivist and their archive.
Constructing Personal Archives 2020 was envisaged and curated as a four-month long incubation program, where selected archiving projects have been mentored in related techniques and practices.
Each month a new tool was introduced: digitization for documenting the archives, information management for preservation and accession, story collecting and narrative building exercises, and working across various mediums for creative visualisation of the projects. Modes of engagement for this programme included, day-long workshops with external mentors, one-on-one discussions, group conversations with guest speakers and presentations by the internal team. These learning experiences will culminate into a digital showcase of prototypes or proposals, in February 2021 with an intention to further the discourse about reimagining archival practices in the Global South.
This programme is being hosted by Curating for Culture, a personal collective initiated by designer and historian, Ishita Shah. Member of this collective and a public space designer, Vallabhi Jalan, is supporting CPA 2020 through her creative skills for communication and as an active participant.
Workshop on Documentation with Mitul Kajaria
Workshop on Information Management with Sneha Ragavan
Workshop on Storytelling Tools with Anuja Ghosalkar
Workshop on Design Visualisation with Sarita Sundar
As a part of our ongoing initiative, Constructing Personal Archives 2020, we had also curated a series of open dialogues with diverse professionals who have engaged with archiving practices in their creative ways. The intention of this expsoure is to build a forum around the possibilities in cultural preservation across India but also the Global South.
PANJAB: Making Sense in a Landmine of Narratives
PARI: The Everyday Lives of Everyday People
From the Archives to the Museum
Engaging the Archival Habitat
Meet the CPA Finalists
Participating projects represent a wide variety of interests, from archiving family (member’s) histories to engaging with community narratives or extending one’s own practice into building institutional archives. The programme had received proposals from across the global; and the final selected participants are engaging in this programme from Delhi, Raipur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Shimla, West Bengal and Nilgiris, to name a few as well as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Syria and the United States.
CPA 2020 Open Call (closed)
We invite you to send your proposals for a four month long online engagement
to curate and create your own archival projects.
It could be family archives, community histories, institutional material, research work or any other collection. Projects will be selected by the internal team on the basis of clarity of content and feasibility of putting it together in the given timeframe.
Selected participants will meet every month, four times for either of the following: technical workshops with archive professionals, presentation by researchers, one-on-one mentoring and group sharing discussions within the group. Mentoring sessions will be scheduled at mutual convenience in the mid-week. Expert sessions will be curated on Saturdays, as per following themes:
Sept 2020: Archival Documentation
Oct 2020: Information Management
Nov 2020: Storytelling Tools
Dec 2020: Design Visualisation
Jan 2021: Launch of the Digital Archive
2nd Saturday : full day workshops with archive professionals
More details about speakers will be uploaded in the coming week. Some speakers will be decided to suit the project proposal submission, after registration.4th Saturday : guest lectures and sharing sessions, evening
Selected individual sessions will be opened up for public participation at 300 INR per person.One-on-one mentoring sessions, twice in the month at mutual convenience.
Participation is being sought from across the globe. Only 20 seats are available.
Participation cost per month, per person at 1000 INR, payable only after selection.
Group participation is possible but charges are applicable per person. To discuss this possibility, please email us.Call for Proposal is Closed | प्रस्ताव के लिए कॉल अब बंद है
For any queries, email us at curatingforculture@gmail.com
More updates about these projects and speaker sessions will be shared via Instagram handle.