My ABC is... Active

In March 2023 research associates Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin were invited for a research stay at the Stiftung Sitterwerk in St. Gallen, to take part in the workshop series »My ABC is...«, and interpret the dynamic order of the library and material archive from the perspective of their research. Their intervention was guided by the search for activity in materials – the mechanisms of control and cooperation – that extend beyond the realm of human influence or perception.

»My ABC is... active« asked how materials are tied to their contexts, how they reveal processes and transform over time. Rešetar and Perraudin challenged the prevailing view of materials as stable and standardized entities. Material archives as repositories of knowledge are often limited to the collection of durable and isolated samples and rely on practices that inhibit change as much as possible. Yet they are indices of material flows and larger socio-ecological concerns. Through their research visit, Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin explored the extent to which archives provide access to and experience of such activities in materials – such as phase transitions, growth, or weathering – and how the samples relate to material processes of worldmaking outside the collection.

The exhibition at Sitterwerk was the preliminary result of a search for such traces. Between the tables, the floor and the shelves, narratives of materials in their use, their processing, and their legacies interweave with practices of care and maintenance.