Argos Centre for Audiovisual Arts
Argos' collections contain around 4,000 video works and over 3,800 print titles, books and catalogues. The centre also houses exhibition spaces and a media studio. Brussels, Belgium from 2009-2010.
Research & development
Developed projects:
1. EYE Dutch Film Institute, collaboration on projects Instant Cinema and The Scene Machine, sharing collections. Presentation at FARO Conference in November 2010.
2. BRAINS, Brussels Art School Association, new association to share Argos Collections within one platform using Kaltura video publishing services.
3. Artists – teachers panel. Collaboration is open for schools, teachers, lecturers and researchers.
4. Argos research site. Held an educational and learning resources for researchers, universities and general audiences.
5. DCA “Digital Libraries” project. Enhancing access to media art content aggregated for Europeana, supported by the European Commission.
Argos Platform research outlines:
1. Platform as а harvesting instrument for archiving network.
Digital content publishing tools.
2. Network navigation, mapping tools and content filtering.
Content annotation. Artist’ archive.
3. Archival tools. Open source, CC and copyright.
4. Participation and dissemination schemes.
5. Reproducible models.
The Centre
Throughout the past three decades, 🅐🅡🅖🅞🅢 has gained special expertise in the field of audiovisual archiving and preservation, in the initiation and accommodation of unique audiovisual research projects, and in supporting a broad range of artistic and discursive practices.
Organised a myriad of programmes, among them exhibitions, screenings, festivals, workshops, seminars, and conversations, both in and outside ᵃʳᵍᵒˢ, locally as well as (inter)nationally.
Collaborations
Monday: Firework
Tuesday: Illuminations
Wednesday: Revolution
Exhibition concentrates on history, and more especially on the early days of the Belgian monarchy and its cultural, social-political and economic context.
Video for Angel Vergara exhibition at Argos Centre for Audiovisual Arts, Brussels, Belgium 2010
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The title of the exhibition derives from an anonymous poster that circulated in Brussels in the days preceding the Belgian Revolution in 1830 – a slogan-like message that appeared to be announcing a show of some sort. Vergara makes use of this historical ‘reality’ for a reflection in which historical facts intersect with fictional elements and personal thoughts. The exhibition circuit is conceived as a whole, even though it is divided into three chapters, and the artist called it ‘an anti-painting of history’.
This is precisely why we see such historical figures as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Leopold I and the painters Gustaaf Wappers and Antoine Wiertz, in addition to contemporary figures. While questioning Belgian cultural identity, Vergara employs the accepted national ‘history’ as a launch pad for an exposition in the form of a dialogue with today’s Europe.
That means this exhibition is not by any means an instructive circuit, rather a subjective topography. Vergara’s mental exercise on autonomy, the sense of community and personal freedom – on the genesis and existence of an identity and a nation – is related to the artist’s position in society.
In Angel Vergara’s work, objects often make way for current political affairs, the economic situation and events in society. His work is based on everyday life, into which he then injects his art. It is precisely in this intermediate space that Vergara (1958) puts incisive and often playful questions about both ‘the world’ and ‘the art world’.
