HISTORY / REALITY. An Attic Archive Installation [Performance Programme]

A performance and screening programme curated by Bodor as part of HISTORY/REALITY: An Attic Archive Installation, 2-4 April 2024, Matthew Galleries, DJCAD, University of Dundee.

The event happened on the 4th April and included a one-off screening of a film, three new performances (developed in collaboration between artists and curator) engaging with the Attic Archive, and participatory 're-visit' of the Smile Scone, a historical artwork from the Attic Archive.

The event contributes to Bodor's curatorial practice-research focusing on creating 'living archives' and contribute to the RSE funded research network project (and emerging MCO) Curating The Digital Attic Archive: A Case Study For Open-Source Approaches Top Artists' Archive project led by Bodor as PI.

The event (all listed below but also logged on Discovery as separate collabortive Outputs with documentation) included:

1. The Burning - Screening of a film by Malcolm Dickson which documents "The Burning", a performance at Glasgow Green at 8 pm on 8.8.88 during ‘The Festival of Non-Participation’ co-ordinated by Pete Horobin across Scotland when he was an artist in residence at the Dundee Resource Centre for the Unemployed (D.R.C.U).

2. Fae Fife Tae Angus & Back Again - Via Lud's Toun - A joint performance by Stewart Home and Karen Strang - key collaborators of Pete Horobin and frequent visitors of The DATA Attic in the 1980s - who were brought together by Bodor for the first time since the 1980s to make this work. The performance reactivated, referenced, and reimagined two of Horobin’s 1984 works while also connected with historical events the two artists are interested in their own practice, such as the 1980s miners’ strike and the 16th Women of Fife who came to be known as the Dysart Witches. The performances were captured on video and will be edited as a film Output.
on the web-platform developed as part of the wider research project.

3. RE-RECORDING - A performance and dual-monitor installation by Roddy Hunter (artist and Co-I on the research project) investigating Pete Horobin's 'Digestive Biscuit Action' (1986), a meditation on personal and cultural history and an observation of the economy and politics of everyday reality. The video output of the performance will provide a basis for a new split-screen video work incorporating footage of Haining's 1986 performance with Hunter's in 2024, to be exhibited in later on the web-platform developed as part of the wider research project.

4. Mother, Worker, Artist, Other - a performance by Laurie MacInally, Dundee-based artist who made new work in response to the archive without having previous knowledge of its history. Instead of 're-performing' or 're-visiting' a specific work from the past, McInally offered a response to themes embedded in the Attic Archive that spoke to her as an artist in her 20s, such as the interconnectedness of art and life and the changing identities individuals navigate over time. The work offered trajectory between two artists who never met while held onto the deeply personal overtones relevant to McInally's own practice exploring the boundaries and intersections of the role’s women play in society.