- 7 May 2023 3 pm UTC
- dur 6 min
When referring to the concept of the archive, what is paradoxical is the fact that an archive seems to have “the ability to encapsulate” transcendental notions such as: time, space, and causality. “The matter’s” avatar is represented by the physical or the digital documents stored in its departments. An archive is a “formidable device” created by man’s primary obsessions: belonging/fear of losing data/order, control and influence/, three diabolical precious tools that define power enforced by ourselves over our chaotic lives since the beginning of humanity. Everything that an archive contains is religiously selected, stored, saved, manipulated and it can be destroyed in a second. Archives represent our mémoire collective and, perhaps, beyond that, are a cut in the reality of the present, a masterful delusion, similar to a hologram. What happens when the hologram disappears? Does it really matter? Matter for whom? For those in power? For society? Does it really matter? Who is the archivist? “The Archivist” (2021) is the second video work made in Copenhagen as part of a larger artistic research project on the concept of the archive. Here, the unusual character is an archivist from a possible future, operating his daily duties, in a power exchange ritual. Every step of his work procedure is strictly supervised and approved by a superior entity behind the front camera. The main parts of the choreographic moves are inspired by the body positions from Renaissance sculptures. Delimiting from other groups of society, the blue stroke on the mouth of the archivist is a mark of the people having this key profession, having as a reference the German expressionism.
Operating as performance artist, writer and director, Buescu’s artistic praxis combines autobiographical elements with techniques of research and documentary mainly staged as live performance art pieces. ARTIST’S WEBSITE