Garage Archive Collection announces open call for research grant program Archive Summer

The world’s largest collection on Russian contemporary art, Garage Archive invites Russian and international researchers to take part in its program Archive Summer. This year’s focus is reading artist’s file as an intellectual task.

The main goal of Garage Archive is to create an academic platform for studying Russian contemporary art in an international context and Archive Summer is one program helping to draw researchers’ attention to its collection of over 400,000 items. 

Inviting international researchers and experts in Russian postwar art to work in its archive, Garage aims to elucidate the history of contemporary art in the USSR and Russian émigré circles.

The focus of the program will change every year. In 2018, the spotlight is on documents from the Artists section. Researchers will have the opportunity to study dossiers on artists of various generations from the collections of Leonid Talochkin, Art Projects Foundation, Aidan Gallery, XL Gallery, TV Gallery and the archive of Open Systems Project. These artist files contain thousands of documents including exhibition catalogues, monographs, manuscripts, project sketches, reviews and manifestoes, photographs and videos of the 1970s-2010s, invitations, postcards and replicas of works.

Access to these materials will allow researchers to apply various methodologies used in art historical studies—from connoisseurship to transhistorical and poststructuralist analysis. Regardless of the methodology they choose, their enquiry into the lives of particular artists will serve as foundation for broader art-historical analysis and production of universal meanings.

The program is open for Russian and international researchers studying the history of modern and contemporary art. Successful applicants will receive a grant to visit Moscow and conduct research at Garage Archive for one month. In 2018 the program will run from June 4 to September 2.

Apply for a Grant

Applications sent to archivesummer@garagemca.org will be accepted until April 9, 2018. Results will be published on the museum’s website on this years Library Night.

Application Guidelines

Application to Archive Summer consists of four parts:

• CV;
• List of publications;
• Academic reference;
• Personal statement including a brief description of the project.

Applications will be accepted in .doc/docx. File names must contain the applicant’s family name and the city the application is coming from.

Example:

Ivanov_Ivan_Moscow_letter
Ivanov_Ivan_Moscow_CV

Conditions

Along with a grant of 70,000 RUB, Garage will cover the recipient’s travel costs and provide accommodation if required. Successful applicants will be invited to work at the archive during one summer month. Exact dates are to be confirmed with the organizers.  

Contact

+7 495 645-05-20
archivesummer@garagemca.org