POLITICAL MANIFESTO
Building an
Archivio di noi
aka Visionary collage
"You say there are no words
to describe this time,
you say it doesn’t exist.
But remember. Make an effort to remember.
Or else, invent."
Monique Wittig
In March 2023, a group of comrades sent an email and launched the idea of the Archive: a collective self-narration project/path, made up of video interviews by US for US—lesbians, trans, and nonbinary people—to reclaim the power to build and rebuild the narrative of our history.
We are driven, on one hand, by the awareness that we no longer want to witness or experience the eternal restart from year zero of political reflection. On the other hand, we are deeply motivated by the desire to recognize the value of the relational and political fabric that makes our lives what they are, to collectively visualize the transformations, successes, and victories as much as the fractures and defeats that have already occurred, and that, perhaps, do not need to repeat themselves in the same way.
We are building, and want to continue building, a tool to create our Memory and project it into the future. Taking care of our stories, self-narrating in a world that seeks to render us invisible and confine us to individuality, is a tool of strength and re-sistance for others as well as for ourselves. It is a generative and intergenerational attempt to tell who we have been and who we are to those who will come after us, to comrades and struggles we cannot yet imagine.
The method of creating the interview is the central axis of the political discussion within ARCHIVIO di NOI: a broad circle of dialogue, a practice that comes from afar for each of us in different ways and along different paths, but one we know how to share today. We are aware that we are not, and do not want to be, a political collective, but we are capable, with the tools we already have or are building together, of putting into play what is needed for this journey.
Dal cerchio sono uscite delle domande più o meno ampie che, nelle video interviste provano a far emergere la storia personale e politica di ogni compagn* intervistat*, i desideri, il rapporto con il corpo proprio e altrui, i sogni infranti e quelli realizzati, le prospettive per il futuro, la comunità, come ci eravamo immaginate di crescere e come desideriamo invecchiare.
Abbiamo iniziato intervistando alcune di noi e continueremo a farlo con l'idea, in futuro, di coinvolgere altrə compagnə che vorranno contribuire a questa narrazione collettiva.
Some want to be interviewed in a group, some are still unsure and might change their mind many times, and others don’t wish to be interviewed at all but contribute in countless different ways to making the recordings happen. The Archive project is constantly evolving, just like us. It has no specific timeline or deadlines to meet.
Outside the rush of everyday life, we take our time to reflect and create, respecting the desires and possibilities of each one of us.
ARCHIVIO DI NOI
is open to contamination and influence
Open to the ideas and contributions of those who are here today and those who will want to participate in the future.
After all, the “US” in this archive is multifaceted: “US” is the invisible thread that binds us together, linked by feminisms and transfeminism, by self-definitions that resonate as either aligned or at least familiar, with an intersectional perspective.
An elastic, fluid “us” that expands and welcomes, observes with wonder, absorbs, reveals multiple connections between paths but also simple glances, without conforming, while maintaining the complexities that run through us.
The Archive we envision is still to be defined. We definitely want it to have a physical space, one that is accessible and open to anyone who wishes to consult it. It will not only contain the interviews of individual comrades but also the story of the process that created it: behind-the-scenes moments, as well as fragments from our meetings. Because the collective process is as political as the individual stories we will tell.
Let’s stay in touch!
Sono ancora tanti gli interrogativi da sciogliere: che forma archivistica dare a tutto ciò, come renderlo uno strumento fruibile, come far sì che la nostra immagine venga tutelata anche quando non potremmo più farlo da sole, a chi consentiremo di attraversarlo e utilizzarlo.
E poi: che trasformazioni stiamo attraversando insieme all'Archivio? Cosa potrà nascere dalle nuove relazioni e incontri che facciamo e faremo?
O anche: il materiale dell'Archivio diventerà un film? Un documentario?
Le opzioni sono infinite ma alcuni punti sono fermi:
Ci piacerebbe che ARCHIVIO di NOI fosse un progetto poroso e aperto allo scambio e al confronto con altrə compagnə che vogliono portare idee e suggerimenti, con altre realtà che hanno progetti di archivio, con altri gruppi che vorranno immaginare progetti simili.
Made with
