Anna Anguissola (University of Pisa)
Over the last few decades, scholars have increasingly highlighted the role of archaeological imagery as a rich repository of both visual clichés and, more importantly, of intellectual stimuli for contemporary visual artists and performers (see, e.g. Roelstraete 2013; Settis 2020). An increasing number of works has attuned to a distinctive historiographic mode, drawing on the archaeological theory and practice in order to explore the dynamics of cultural production, the accumulation and institutionalization of knowledge, and the construction of (social, economic, and political) authority. The entire sequence of moments and activities that define modern archaeological practice have been investigated and questioned through the lens of contemporary art: from the organization of fieldwork, to the surveying and mapping of areas that have been previously selected and isolated by artificial boundaries, to the classification of finds and the construction of hierarchies between artefacts of different periods, style, material, and function, to the museum presentation as established, ‘classical’ knowledge.
By representing or re-enacting archaeological processes – widely popularized by the media, as well as by academic and museum institutions – artists have developed strategies of “history-telling” that tackle issues such as the artificiality of planned discoveries (Allan Wexler), the meticulous logistics and intellectual heritage of colonial looting (Thierry Oussu), classification as a form of socially-induced selection (Mark Dion, Grisha Bruskin), and the evolutionary process and infinite combinatory potential of present and future material cultures (Daniel Arsham). The paper discusses a small selection of works in order to illuminate the ways in which contemporary art has engaged with archaeological theory and practice in meaningful ways, exploring the mechanisms, potential, and limits in the construction of shared bodies of knowledge.