ABSTRACT
Founded in 2016, Tate Exchange works with the public to explore what happens when art and society meet. Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum is a research initiative at Tate that interrogates forms of art and art making that challenge the practices and definitions of the museum and its collections. Central to the project are art practices that unfold over time and trouble the boundaries between the record, the archive and the artwork. In collaboration with Tate Exchange, the project is looking at the limits of institutional recordmaking at Tate, representations of archival value and the status of material produced collaboratively with artists and audiences. This chapter will present an early conversation between the project team and Tate Exchange, focused on the materialities of the relational objects created at Tate Exchange, and how we can look to archival methodologies to capture socially engaged practice in the contemporary art museum.
We discuss the record creator at Tate; collaborative practice between institution, Associate and public; and the materiality of the political. We reflect on agency in both action and archival trace, and how to utilise evolving theories of the archive when engaging with seemingly immaterial practices such as performance and storytelling. We consider archiving as both a political act and an extension of Tate Exchange’s practice, and the role of objects in activating activist practice now and in the future.
Reflecting the socially engaged and participative practices we discuss, the writing and editing of this chapter are the result of a collaborative process between Tate Exchange and Reshaping the Collectible. A full list of contributors can be found at the end of the chapter.
