ANARKHIVING

paths of anarchiving for an anarchist archive
Jacopo Jenna and Ariadne Mikou
a production by COORPI and CRO.ME / Cronaca e Memoria dello Spettacolo  

Archives come in many forms: material, audiovisual, textual, digital, analog, and even corporeal. What these different types of archives have in common—especially those of words, images, and sounds—is a tendency toward order and classification of the past, what Derrida calls “the beginning and the commandment,” that is, the place where power is exercised and from which things begin or originate.
How can we explore a dance archive, such as that of “Cro.me / Cronaca e Memoria dello Spettacolo” (Cro.me / Chronicle and Memory of the Show), through the anarchic practice of anarchiving, which aims to undo order and classification? How can we breathe life and new vitality into an archive that has fixed movement in a fragment of time, in contrast to the ever-changing nature of dance?
We think of anarchiving as an open practice of immersion in the archive, in which the latter acts as a choreographic score capable of generating new materials and connecting generations and artistic voices, a place of transition between the spectral and the living to transform memory into future.

Jacopo Jenna is a choreographer and director. His work explores the perception of the body in relation to movement through research involving choreography and video, studying new possibilities for incorporating dance, ranging across various languages and generating multiple performance contexts.
After graduating in Sociology from the University of Urbino, he developed his dance studies in the Netherlands at Codarts (Rotterdam Dance Academy). He is involved in training and educational programs for various age groups, developing new strategies for engaging with performing arts. He has presented his work at international festivals and institutions.

Ariadne Mikou (PhD in Interdisciplinary Choreographic Research, University of Roehampton, London) is a Greek-born dance artist and researcher. Alongside her creative practice involving participatory choreography, choreographic scores, installations, and short films, she collaborates with artists, festivals, and institutions on outreach and research projects related to memory, transmission, and interdisciplinarity. She writes for international magazines (Springback Magazine and The Theatre Times) and occasionally contributes to Hystrio. Trimestrale di Teatro e Spettacolo. She contributes to academic anthologies exploring choreographic processes, dance on screen, performance documentation, and the relationship between the performing arts, architecture, and urban space. She collaborates with the cultural association NEXUS on the European project “TRANScenDANCE: Trans people within Dance and Performative Spaces.”