Art-action as a form of protest archiving

How is protest remembered, what kind of work with the past and the archive can be done?  These are research questions that we seek answers to by reaching out to various forms of text and expression. And it can be found in art work by Sharon Hayes, an American artist measuring herself against the phenomenon of protest memory. 

The Non-Permanent Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw features excerpts from her action titled “in the near future”. In Warsaw we can see a slide projection documenting her one-woman reconstructions of the protests. Hayes appears in places where street demonstrations took place in the past and returns with the slogans proclaimed at the time. This performance, of course, requires reaching for archival materials, and allows for an “afterlife” of the protests, reminding us of unfulfilled promises.

As we read in the exhibition catalog: “Hayes presents to passers-by slogans derived from their original historical context and tries to put them back into the public space. He observes people’s spontaneous reactions to slogans that address social issues, gender, race, feminism, sexual minority rights and politics, often being quotes that are anachronistic in tone today.”

More about her works in MSN Warsaw: >>>

And leaflet from her exhibition/action: >>>

An another example is the virtual exhibition “ WHOSE THE REVOLUTION 2016-2021 HERSTORIES”, originally shown offline at the Nuremberg House in Krakow (in 2021). The exhibition presented materials related to the protest activity against the restriction of the right to abortion (2016 and 2020/2021 protest campaigns) in Poland including excerpts from interviews, photographs by Jack Taran, diaries (notes). The exhibition was prepared by the activist and sociological community of Krakow, and curated by Radoslaw Nawojski. 

The virtual walk through the exhibition >>> is another documentation layer of this project – after the exhibition finishes, it is still possible to reach out to the recordings and images available in virtual reality.