“Archive Imaginaire” by Thomas Mayfried
In 2003, photographer and graphic designer Thomas Mayfried was selected to develop the visual identity for the Haus der Kunst, Munich. That effort, in which he remains intimately involved, was showcased at the Haus der Kunst last summer in “Thomas Mayfried. Ephemera. Graphic Design. Etc.” Curated by Swantje Grunder and Chris Dercon, whose own personal archive was featured at 032c workshop in 2008, the exhibition spotlighted the cumulative process of design, presenting not only Mayfried’s own printed materials, but also blueprints for Haus der Kunst, ephemera, and works from a diverse selection of artists, photographers and designers. ARCHIVE IMAGINAIRE thus at once continues Mayfried’s excavation of his own visual memory, and marks yet another installment in 032c workshop’s avid exploration of the notion of the archive – and the unique approaches of its archivist.
A simultaneous homage to Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge and André Malraux’s “imaginary museum,” this amassing of works channels the ideal of the dynamic museum. The contents of the vitrine marry the transience of information design – in the form of postcards, labels, or flyers – with the archival impulse of the collector, emphasizing the material reality of accumulation and communication. “What one learns from books,” says Mayfried, “must in reali- ty be spread out on tables.” The outcome is as universal as it is the result of highly personal processes of gathering and presentation: “It is what one takes in subcutaneously, by osmosis, that we have sought to formulate as an exhibition.”
WITH: Otl Aicher / Guillaume Apollinaire / Daniel Buren / Roman Cieslewicz / Wim Crouwel / R. Ferracci / Peter Fischli & David Weiss / Lee Friedlander / Ken Garland / General Idea / Karl Gerstner / Jean-Luc Godard / Ernst Gomringer / Dan Graham / Richard Hamilton / William Klein / Herbert Matter / Maureen Mooren & Daniel van der Velden / Association Ne pas plier / Alexander Rodchenko / Dieter Roth / Ed Ruscha / Stephen Shore / Paul Ludwig Troost / Massimo Vignelli / Lawrence Weiner / Piet Zwart