A Vision for Europe: British Art and the Mediterranean

A workshop in the context of the Annihilation exhibition at the Lethaby Gallery and at the Warburg Institute.

In 2016 a collaboration between CSM, Bilderfahrzeuge and the KBW staged a colloquium event at the KBW entitled ‘The Warburg Haus: Apparatus, Inscription, Data, Speculation’. Mick Finch gave a paper, The Technical Apparatus of the Warburg Haus: possible returns from oblivion, where he discussed the significance of an exhibition staged in 1941, curated by Fritz Saxl and Rudolf Wittkover which later became a publication and especially in the context of Kenneth Clark and John Berger’s use of image-led narratives and particularly in relation to 'Civilisation' and 'Ways of Seeing'. In June 2016 the entire archive of British Art and the Mediterranean was located in the Photographic Collection of the Warburg Institute. The value of this material extends to being a living trace of Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas and also as an important artefact produced by a refugee organisation during a time of crisis The political parallels of the archive’s context in 1941 and the present are also highly significant.

The Annihilation event interacted with the material, engaging with a selection its panels. This process involved students from CSM and the Warburg, teaching staff from CSM and the Warburg, the help of the CSM Study Collection, members of the Bilderfahrzeuge team and other external interventions. This took place on Wednesday 22 March 2017 with a public conversation at 1pm about the project and in reference to specific material from the archive in the context of the Annihilation event at. The processing of the material is seen as a major step in activating this archive, bringing it into the present, in a context where it now, more than ever has resonance and value. On the 20 and 21 March there were other session held with the material at the Warburg Institute.

• http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/whats-on/events...