An Anecdoted Archive of Exhibition Lives

An Anecdoted Archive of Exhibition Lives What are the lives of exhibitions? Are they microcosms of the worlds we live in? The sum of the works exhibited? The traces of the research done for them? The great issues they can point to? ‘An Anecdoted Archive' proposes that exhibitions can be measured by the impact they have had on viewers' consciousness. They can be articulated through what viewers thought they saw, what they felt, what distant worlds were hinted at and what was revealed about their immediate environments. Some exhibitions take place in institutions (museums and galleries) and others are institutions themselves (biennials and international fairs). They gain an independent life when they exceed beyond the institutions that engendered them and link to the substance infrastructures of viewers’ lives. ‘An Anecdoted Archive’ assembles the narratives of significant exhibitionary moments by 15 viewers from around the globe who produce a veritable polyphony of revelation. Each viewer described a pivotal moment in their life and a shift in their understanding through an encounter with an exhibition. As an archive it performs a ‘counter-cartography’ of the art world, pointing out that it is not great international reputations that enable significant experiences, but the ability to affect lives and perceptions