Welcome to my digital journal for Artists Archive: Rome/ New York! This page shares images, locations, and highlights from my journey through Rome March 16th though 22, 2025.
All images are courtesy fo Bria Pickel-Fridman.
Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo was our first archive visit on March 18th. Our visit started with formal presentations on their projects, collections, and museum structure at large.
Walking the fine line between art and archive. This piece was considered archive because it was folded up and gifted casually, not with the same intention as the Flowers series
New Acquisitions: discussions on processing, housing, and documenting new acquisitions in various states of care. We unboxed this together, noting the original envelopes, the order of the images, and the smells indicating conservation needs.
Artists socializing and playing billiards a tthe Venice Biennale. A special look at their personal lives and photo selection process.
Second Archive visit on March 19th in the morning. Some of the topics of interest included how to navigate and storage related challenges, limited resources, and copyists.
Original artwork was kept in the space casually leaning against the wall as the artist had kept it in his studio. It offered a unique chance to see the works up close.
The small loft space hold artowkr, publications, and workspace together.
The two films captured Angeli's time in the contrasting cities. They reflect the energy of each city and the current events at the time. Rome was black and white and we watched the changing political atittudes in the people. New York was in color, dizzying with constant cuts and movement.
Third archive visit on March 19th in the afternoon, we discussed navigating the dense volume of images, slides, proofs, catalogues and other ephemera.
This collection of polaroid images of undentified sitters and subjects are one of the physical collections we observed on this visit. Each Polaroid was digitized and catalogued in their database. The physical material was kept in a plastic sleeve.
We explored the Archive's space, which was Elisabetta's studio briefly before passing. Whiel she did not make a lot of work here, she did use it mostly for storage. We got to compare how it looked then and now.
We got to see how Elisabetta's work toughed the lives of so many people, including Franco Angeli and the MAXXI staff at the opening (pictured above).
Our fourth visit on March 20th, we had a surprisingly in depth look at how the archive is being reimagined by artists during their artists' residency. This was a fun look at the interplay between new/old and the idea of creating an archive in current time.
We got an upclose look at their careful housing and care for the works.
Conversations with knowledgable staff.
A selection of their collection works that varied in style, origin, and technique.
Our fifth and final archival visit, this archive also focused on contemporary wirk with artists and capturing archives from recent projects. Some of their challenges included legacy media, digitization, and access.
The Vatican
Trevi Fountain
Galleria Borghese
The Roman Forum
my favorite meal
my favorite coffee
my best vintage finds
yarn and fibers