Workshop: Disappointed Archive — When a river flows straight

Disappointed Archive: When a river flows straight is a screening and a workshop to consider the effects of modernization on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and how this history can be useful in informing the contemporary conversation on ecology, collectivity and innovation.

The first hour will be dedicated to screenings and a presentation: two short Soviet agitprop documentaries from Belarusfilm archive — on animal farming and creation of Berezinsky Biosphere on the territory of contemporary Belarus, followed by a presentation by the historian of architecture Ksenia Litvinenko (Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space), which will include excerpts of a documentary form Latvian Film Archives and center on the role of portable buildings and fly-in fly-out urbanism in petroleum and natural gas extraction in Western Siberia.

After a break, we will discuss these materials alongside a selection of critical theory essays on the subject and take collective notes. Participants are invited to consider the materials in dialogue with the various waves of western, and not-western, anti-colonial and ecological theory, and to bring their references on related topics to share with the group, to collaboratively compile a joint resource at the end of the workshop (the latter is optional).

Disappointed Archive: When a river flows straight is the second event in the series under the umbrella title Aesthetics of Disappointment, curated by Anastasia Kolas across various venues. Here, disappointment is considered as a diagnostic framework — the threshold emotion that arises before the resentment sets in. The latter, the consequence of disappointment, signals a mode of stagnation and a passive position of victimhood. In contrast, the focus on disappointment is offered as a reparative reading, acknowledging both: the failed expectation, and the choice and sense of agency that persists despite, or through, the sense of disappointment.

Friday, September 19
Atelier 2
2 until 5:30 pm, with breaks
If interested, please register via email: anastasia.kolas@protonmail.com