Archive Opens New Milan Space with Muna Mussie Solo Show

Archive, a nonprofit founded in Berlin in 2009 by Chiara Figone, opened a new space in Milan at via Tertulliano 68 with a summer solstice weekend event. The inaugural exhibition is a solo show by Muna Mussie (Eritrea, 1978) titled ጎዳና ቦሎኛ شارع بولونيا Bologna St. 173, curated by Chiara Figone and Zasha Colah. The show stems from Mussie's residency at Archive. The artist's installation includes a performance titled PF DJ, where she covers herself with a Netsela from the waist up, makes popcorn, and reads acronyms sewn onto cloths (ne'zzla in Eritrean) covering the white and yellow walls, creating a weave of sounds, reverberations, and echoes. The work draws on Mussie's childhood memories of Eritrean political festivals attended by diaspora communities worldwide, especially in Bologna, evoking the struggle for independence, resistance to military dictatorship, and hope for self-determination. Archive operates as a decentralized organization with collaborators from Cairo, Dakar, London, Marrakech, Milan, New York, Paris, and Tunis, focusing on language, visuality, and archives while challenging Eurocentric narratives.