The artistic usage of archives through the Benjaminian lens

Abstract

From Walter Benjamin’s thinking on history, and the usage of archives by artists such as Sara Angelucci, Christian Boltanski, and Angela Grauerholz, we demonstrate that the archive is not a fixed whole, nor an essentially open object but a dynamic aggregate reconfigured at each use. In other terms, it is when a user and archives meet that the archive reveals an access to reality. Keywords: Walter Benjamin; theory of history; dialectical image; artistic usage of archives.