ABOUT THE PROJECT
AnnART Archive
AnnART Archive is a project initiated by MAGMA Contemporary Medium Association in partnership with the Székely National Museum in Sfântu Gheorghe, and developed in collaboration with the ETNA Foundation, drawing on its extensive documentary collection. Our archival project aims to provide public access to the documentation of the ten editions of the AnnART Performance Festival, which took place at Lake Saint Anne between 1990 and 1999.
Closely associated with its founder, artist Imre Baász, AnnART was consecutively organised by the artist Gusztáv Ütő, with the support of a broad community of peers.
The project develops a public digital archive by digitising and cataloguing records of over 200 artistic actions carried out by more than 100 local and international artists, alongside the documentation of organisational work and institutional history that underpinned them. This digital research infrastructure will support future studies of contemporary art, offering insight into the artists and works shaped by this context, and the public discourse they engendered. By making the archive publicly accessible, we aim to strengthen the international network that has grown around the festival and to foster collaboration between the museum and various civil society actors.
Due to the inherently ephemeral nature of performance art, the project adopts an open archiving method. This creative process of reinterpretation addresses the methodological challenges of historiography in documenting artworks that are experienced live and exist primarily within the moment of their performance, leaving behind only traces in archival materials. Recognising that these artefacts cannot substitute the original works but instead serve as resources for reinterpretation, the project foregrounds the tension between the transient nature of performance and the inevitably partial, incomplete character of its documentation. To bridge this gap, we are developing a participatory archiving methodology that enables live actions to be extended and revisited through various media, allowing for ongoing reinterpretations and re-enactments. Central to this approach is the intent to recreate the resonances and intensities through which these performative actions revitalised the public sphere during the first decade of the post-communist transition.
The archive will be further enriched through public contributions, adding new contextual layers via interviews, screenings, and public discussions. The cataloguing of performances will take place in dialogue with the artists themselves, ensuring that their actions are documented in ways that support potential future museum representation.
Historical interpretations of art often connect performance art to times of major social crisis. The regime change of 1989, in our case, made it possible to (re)claim the public sphere, now liberated from censorship and open to new ideas, forms of expression, and modes of collaboration. The wave of performance art within the visual arts of Central and Eastern Europe is emblematic of this emotionally charged era. The extensive documentary archive of the AnnART Festival preserves materials that offer an opportunity to critically revisit the transition period — an endeavour relevant both to the professional community formed around the festival and to Romanian society at large. Archiving this history is crucial for understanding local identity and how civil society started to self-organise within a network that gradually connected to the broader international context.
Framing this specific history of performance art within a museographic context provides a platform for the intergenerational transfer of its intellectual heritage. In this spirit, the project also aims to develop a knowledge base to support educational programs for younger generations. This educational component will take shape through a series of workshops and discussions held in high schools and universities, fostering sustained engagement with AnnART’s evolving archival laboratory.
