‘Thats special, we’ll keep that…’

One of the last things I did in my role at Tate was to co-author a chapter on the devolved archive we founded at Tate Exchange and the wider context of activist archival practice and the institution, and its out now as a chapter in The Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context, edited by Sue Breakell and Wendy Russell, and out with Routledge this week.

As a socially engaged and participative practice space, the chapter on Tate Exchange was written through an extended conversation and edited in as a collaborative process between Tate Exchange and Reshaping the Collectible: ‘That's special, we'll keep that': A conversation about counter archiving and socially engaged practice at Tate Exchange, by Sarah Haylett, Lucy Bayley, Cara Courage, Julia LePla, Pip Laurenson, Hélia Marçal and Kit Webb.

The chapter discusses the record creator at Tate; collaborative practice between institution, Tate Exchange Associate and public; and the materiality of the political. It reflects 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. It considers 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.