It is pretty clear, what you have to do to get into HfG Karlsruhe: submit an application. But how do you get out?

According to HfG Karlsruhe’s current examination guidelines, in order to graduate from the school, a copy or the documentation of your graduation project or master’s thesis must to be submitted to the relevant department secretary. Archiving therefore becomes the last necessary step to leave the institution. Without providing the archive with a copy of your work or its relative documentation, it is not possible to graduate. This begs the question: if archiving and documentation are part of the study and practice of art, how can we deal with this?

The panel series Documenting the Moment departs from this essential question, which defines and concretizes our present and our work. How can we document and archive the various flows of our practices and bodies of work? What is worth saving and keeping? Which media are suitable for this endeavour? How can we counter conservation problems? What will happen to these documentations and recordings in the long run?

As research based artistic processes or research as artistic practice become more and more relevant in the art world, their documentation is itself arguably reaching the status of an artwork in and of itself, with the process gaining greater importance than its output or results. In light of this shift, rethinking and reimagining archival practices deserves attention beyond strictly archival fields. Documenting the Moment reacts to this urgency by revisiting the works and practices developed within HfG Karlsruhe over the past 30 years. By initiating and formalizing a dialogue between students and alumni from all departments, Documenting the Moment focuses on the how-tos, as well as the who, what, where, when and why’s of archiving creative practices, with a particular regard for identifying shared urgencies, necessities and responsibilities.

Documenting the Moment is hosted by the HfG Open Resource Center (ORC).

Further dates: 06.07.22, 23.07.22 every time from 7 pm on