Bohdana Korohod - searching for what matters / (un)archiving

searching for what matters / (un)archiving

installation, workshop, guided tour, september 2022

Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Tallinn, Estonia

photo documentation by Heneliis Notton

During September 2022 Bohdana has participated in the residency organized by the contemporary performing arts center Kanuti Gildi SAAL in Tallinn, Estonia. She continued developing her methodology of (un)archiving, while looking for the ways to make it happen-with care. For that she reworked Kanuti Gildi SAAL’s archives, piled for the past 20 years and hidden from the human eye in the basement. With documentation and care as her main tools, she tried to write the space with re-collections of these archives.

This work resulted in three events:

– a guided tour through the center as a living archive,

– a workshop in Writing (hi)stories from archives / Poetic collaging,

– a room installation reenacting the period of the residency and the multiple (un)archiving practices.

The final installation is accompanied by a script providing subtle clues on how to navigate the space. The space is filled with collages from the institution's archives created collectively during the workshop. One of the windows has a mapped projection of the video compiling different encounters with strangers who happened to pass by the open windows of the space where Bohdana was working.

The residency finished by sorting out the archive together with the team of Kanuti Gildi SAAL. Now there is a dedicated room for the archive materials available for visits.

The text recited in the video is a compilation of the texts found in the archive read out loud and recorded during the whole residency period.