In the late 19th century, two young Belgian jurists – Paul Otlet (1868–1944), the father of documentation, and Henri La Fontaine (1854–1943), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate – conceived of a project that sought to gather the world’s knowledge and file it using the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) system that they had created.
The resulting institution, the Mundaneum, became, in the 20th century, a universal centre of documentation. Today, its collections are made up of thousands of books, newspapers, journals, documents, posters, glass plates and postcards – millions of thematic index cards that have withstood the tests of time and war. Inspired by this massive collection that is sometimes referred to as the Paper Google, internationally acclaimed artist Fiona Tan recently unveiled an ambitious and poetic project for the Musée des Arts Contemporains (MAC) in Grand-Hornu, Belgium, that is centred on memory and narrative, and straddles fiction and reality with ease. In the monographic exhibition, titled Shadow Archive, Tan reveals the results of two years of research that she conducted at the Mundaneum.
Denne historien er fra June - July 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
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Denne historien er fra June - July 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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A Sky Full Of Thoughts
Artist James Turrell’s ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ brings together the many nuances of architecture, time, space, light and music in a profound experience that blurs boundaries and lets one roam free within their own minds
We Are Looking into It
Swiss-based artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger talk to us about the evolving meaning and purpose of photography and the many perspectives it lends to history
Cracked Wide Open
Building one of the world’s largest domes was no mean task for anyone, let alone an amateur goldsmith, so how did Filippo Brunelleschi accomplish building not one, but two of them?
In Search of a Witness
In conversation with legendary artist Arpana Caur on all things epiphanic, on all things pandemic, and on all things artistic
Where the Shadows Speak
The founder of Sarmaya Arts Foundation takes us through the bylanes of his journey with Sindhe Chidambara Rao, the custodian of the ancient art form of shadow puppetry – Tholu Bommalata
Bodies in Motion
What happens to the memory of a revelatory experience when it is re-watched through the frames of a screen? It somehow makes the edges sharper and the focal point clearer, as we discover through Chandralekha’s iconic Sharira
Faces in the Water
As physical ‘masks’ become part of our life, we take a look at artists working with different aspects of ‘faces’ and the things that lurk beneath the surface.
A Meeting at the Threshold
The immortal actor exemplified all that is admirable about his profession, from his creative choices to his work philosophy, and his passing was a low blow. This is our tribute to the prince among stars – Irrfan
The Imperfect Layout To The Imperfect Mystery
Jane De Suza’s ‘The Spy Who Lost Her Head’ doesn’t feature a protagonist with superhuman skills of deduction, nor a plot that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Here, quirks and imperfections are pushed into the spotlight
Free and Flawed
Greta Gerwig revitalises the literary classic, Little Women, highlighting the literary journey of its temperamental and wonderfully flawed female protagonist, Jo March