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P&P Moving Image - Access and Reuse 2015-2016

University of Amsterdam
Department of Media Studies
Assignment 4
Mariela Cant Student number 11103639
Chia-Wei Tung Student number 11107979
22 January 2016

JASPER RIGOLE: 81 things I thought I had forgotten

In recent years, traditional boundaries between Film, Audiovisual Archives and the
Visual Arts are becoming more permeable. As Julia Noordegraaf remarks, Since their
emergence, time-based media such as film, video, and digital media have been used by artists
who experimented with the potential of these media (...) The resulting artworks, with their
basis in rapidly developing technologies that cross over into other domains of culture such as
broadcasting and social media, have greatly challenged the traditional infrastructures for
exhibiting, describing, collecting, and preserving art. (Noordegraaf, 2012:11).
Still, Film, Audiovisual Archives and the Visual Arts seem to live separate lives. In a
time in which film, video and media art are becoming a significant source for interdisciplinary
experimentation and theoretical exchange, institutional boundaries still operate, influencing
modes of curating, exhibition and reception.
While questioning these blurry yet existing limits, Jasper Rigoles solo exhibition 81
things I thought I had forgotten, can be considered an art exhibition, an archive and a film
show, simultaneously. The exhibition displays part the collection of the International Institute
for the Conservation, Archiving and Distribution of Other people's Memories (IICADOM), a
fictional archive created by the artist, which mainly consists of found footage material.
Intended as an institutional critique towards Audiovisual Archives, Rigole challenges
traditional archival practices, both on an online and on an exhibition format. On IICADOMs
online platform, it creates a seemingly careless environment that serves merely as a hint of the
whole project. As for the exhibition, it fights a tendency towards opacity, which has prevented
many Archives from being explicit about their selection criteria and cataloguing practices.

Shown in Z33 (Hasselt) and the Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam),
81 things displays Rigoles personal collection of films, tapes, photographs and objects he
found on the street, flea markets or garage sales. However, he does not want people to view it
merely as a rag-pickers private collection. According to Rigoles statement, The IICADOM
sees it as its main task to seek for new destinations for those orphaned memories.
(IICADOM)1 (Figure 1). The pieces in the Institute are open for re-interpretation and recontextualisation, not only by the artist but also by any visitor.

Figure 1. Screen shot of IICADOM statement.

Rigole established IICADOM on June 28, 1980, which is in fact the day he was born.
In this sense, the Institute seeks to challenge traditional demarcations between the private and
the public spheres, transforming what could be seen as a private collection into a public
exhibition. In this same line, Rigole manages to shift between the individual and the collective
memory, without ever blocking the fluid passages between them. By resorting to objects that
he found or bought, but also to some that belong to his own personal history, the artist aims at
blurring the boundaries between what is considered intimate and what corresponds to a
collective domain. Likewise, visitors who recognise themselves, or a member of their family
in the footage, or who find an object that belonged to them in the past, are welcome to retrieve
their belongings, or to ask the artist to terminate their distribution.
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Crossed out in the original text.

IICADOM plays a major role in providing a lucid criticism towards some traditional
methods in archives. Currently, it is a global trend for audiovisual archives to pursue the
involvement of the general public, and online platforms have been improved in order to allow
users to interact with audiovisual materials. According to Giovanna Fossati, [a]long with
new preservation and presentation practices from within the archives, new online
participatory platforms are being introduced and supported that facilitate the development of
what could be defined as crowd film archiving... (Fosatti, 2012:178). IICADOMs online
platforms are strategically used as a means for making these types of archival tendencies more
evident.
Paradoxically, only one movie can be found at IICADOMs website: Paradise
Recollected, a found footage film made by Rigole, using some footage from the Institutes
archive (Figure 2). In addition, a grand statement about the Institutes mission and objectives
is displayed on the site, bearing a close resemblance to the presentation of many
contemporary official archives sites: ...IICADOM is aiming at a giant leap forward: as we
want to set new goals, we aim at redistributing and reassessing the value of these orphaned
memories and want to make them available for a wide range of new applications. We firmly
believe that by doing so, the original value of the orphaned memories can be regained, thereby
shifting this static archive towards a dynamic and lived memory. (IICADOM: Info)

Figure 2. Screen shot of IICADOM official web site.

This grandiloquent declaration contrasts with the mere presentation of one film on the
site, and a slight sense of irony can be perceived. At iicadom.org, links that do not work,

forms that can no longer be filled and lack of information other than the high-flown statement,
suggest an outdated project. In addition, IICADOMs collection of more than 1000 orphaned
home movies are also held in the Internet Archive. Yet, few extra data about the clips and the
Institute as a whole is provided. In contrast with the abundance of IICADOMs home movie
collection on the Internet Archives site, the collections long list of categories remain
unexplained, as if they were traces of an ongoing (yet abandoned) archive (Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3. Screen shot of IICADOMs collection - The Internet Archive.

Figure 4. Screen shot of IICADOMs categories on the Internet Archive.

By making use of these strategies, IICADOMs online versions trigger our curiosity.
By concealing the materials themselves on its official web page, or by withholding the criteria
of the collections metadata on the Internet Archive, a sense of something missing is
suggested. Where is the real collection, then? Can fiction become real somewhere else?
Could an actual space be the place to present IICADOMs collection?
As discussed above, the concept of the IICADOM project acts as a kind of criticism and
even mockery towards traditional archival practices, and this critical stance has become most
evident when the artists collections are present in a physical space. According to Eric
Ketelaar, [n]umerous tacit narratives are hidden in categorization, codification and labeling
(Ketelaar, 2001:135), as previously pointed out, the online presentation of both the
IICADOMs official site and its collection on the Internet Archive seems to miss a lot of parts,
and its information remains concealed for viewers.
Yet, in the physical exhibition 81 things I thought I had forgotten, Rigole makes his
selection and cataloguing criteria transparent to the public. In the exhibition, the collection of
home movies is presented in a spatial installation called An Elementary Taxonomy of
Collected Memory, which consists of a table with built-in viewing screens, allowing the
viewers to go through the footage (Figures 5 and 6). According to Rigole, the work is a
visual representation of the integrated system, the archiving system of the IICADOM.
(Jasper Rigole: Work An Elementary Taxonomy of Collected Memory). In the system, the
home movies are categorised by thematic tags such as family gathering, travel, attractions,
etc. And on the table, there are varied colored lines linking different footage with the same
thematic tags, together to form a visual network of collected memories (Figure 7). In this
way, the categorisation work performed by the artist becomes visible and transparent for the
viewers. In other words, the physical installation enables the compilation work to be present,
which is the major aspect that makes the exhibition distinct from the online presentations of
Rigoles home movie collection. As Gerda Cammaer claims in her essay, with his distinct
compilation style, Rigole has found an imaginative way to interrogate the way archives work,
to explore the complex dialogue between memory and history (Cammaer, 2012:42).
Hence, the added value of the physical exhibition is that Rigole makes the behindthescenes
categorization, codification and labeling emerge before viewers, thus enabling the hidden
tacit narratives to be revealed in front of the public.

Figure 5. An Elementary Taxonomy of Collected Memory

Mixed media installation, IICADOM

Figure 6. An Elementary Taxonomy of Collected Memory

Mixed media installation, IICADOM

Figure 7. An Elementary Taxonomy of Collected Memory - Linking lines.

Moreover, in 81 things, the artist intends to re-create an institutional space to present
the works. The viewing table of An Elementary Taxonomy of Collected Memory somehow
reminds people of the work stations in science institutions; the projections of slide shows
displaying the text of The Cinema of Attraction by Tom Gunning resembles the pedagogical
setting in a classroom, and in the juxtaposition with this is the projection of the movie
Paradise Recollected with its didactic and banal narration voice filling the entire space
(Figure 8). Additionally, visitors are strongly advised to take the instructional manual
(Figure 9) compiled by the artist with them during the tour of the exhibition, which almost
serves as a guide to lead people to go through the works. The whole exhibition environment is
deliberately institutionalized and reminiscent of the authoritative setting of traditional
institutions. Nevertheless, the artist also emphasizes in the introduction of the manual, The
most important instruction, however, is to understand that your active participation in
thinking, exploring and filing is not only required for your own success but equally important
for the IICADOM itself (Rigole, 2015:3). This declaration openly invites people to reinterpret, intervene or even subvert the narratives of the found memories created by the artist,
negating the workings of official archives once again. As Cammaer states, Rigoles work is
ultimately defined by his investigation of the archive as a creative site: collection and
selection become a creative activity, and the language and sign of the archive are used for

their artistic potential rather than their original function (Cammaer, 2012:42). By inviting the
participation of visitors in the physical exhibition space, the memories collected by
IICADOM becomes truly active and Rigoles creative work can be finally completed.

Figure 8. Paradise Recollected

Figure 9. Exhibition Manuals

BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Cammaer, Gerda. Jasper Rigoles Quixotic Art Experiments with Home Movies and
Archival Practices: The International Institute for the Conservation, Archiving, and
Distribution of Other Peoples Memories (IICADOM) The Moving Image 12: 2 Fall 2012:
42-69. Web.
- Curating Film OnCurating.org Issue 3 (2010). Web.
- Fossati, Giovanna. Found Footage Filmmaking, Film Archiving and New Participatory
Platforms. Found Footage. Cinema Exposed (2012): 177-184. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press & Eye Film Institute Netherlands. Print.
- Ketelaar, Eric. Tacit Narratives: The Meaning of Archives. Archival Science 2:1 (2001):
131-141. Print.
- Noordegraaf, Julia, Cosetta Saba, Barbara Le Matre, and Vinzenz Hediger, eds. Preserving
and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University
Press, 2012. Print.

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- Rigole, Jasper. Exhibition Manual: Note (2015). Print.

WEB PAGES
IICADOM: Info
http://www.iicadom.org/node/51627
The Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond
https://www.brakkegrond.nl/en/agenda/jasper-rigole
Jasper Rigole
http://www.jasperrigole.com/
The Internet Archive: IICADOM
https://archive.org/details/iicadom