remote archivist

Interested in the Archive of de Appel as a site of relations, preservation by activation, and welcoming the visible meeting of the professional and the personal, artist Martha Jager’s research for the upcoming two issues of The Remote Archivist takes the vast collection of correspondence as its point of departure.
Focusing on the early de Appel years of 1974 - 1983, she looked through and read hundreds of letters, telegrams and postcards of a.o. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Alison Knowles, Barbara T. Smith and Mierle Laderman Ukeles.
Although different in size, form and content, many of the correspondences share a specific vulnerability in how they speak about life & work, and often express a deep-felt feminist friendship with de Appel founder and director at that time Wies Smals and curator Josine van Droffelaar.
A letter from choreographer and filmmaker Pooh Kaye from 1981, addressed to Josine van Droffelaar, especially stood out. So much so that Martha decided to respond with a letter herself which developed into a dialogue by post and email.
This correspondence, which weaves memory with the present and journeys through the Archive of de Appel as well as two personal histories, forms the second series of The Remote Archivist.