Marco Scotini's 'L'Inarchiviabile' Challenges Linear History Through the Archive

Marco Scotini's book 'L'Inarchiviabile. L'archivio contro la storia' (Meltemi, 2022) argues that the archive is a modernist, hierarchical construct that can be subverted to challenge linear history. The text examines how artists from the 1970s onward have used archival practices to assert alternative temporalities and identities. Scotini highlights Franco Vimercati's repetitive photography, Marcella Campagnano's theatricalization of female roles, and Piero Gilardi's multiple subjectivities. Laura Grisi's attempts to measure the unmeasurable (sand grains, wind) question hegemonic knowledge. The book also covers Gianni Pettena's concept of idleness, Harun Farocki's 'Workers Leaving the Factory', and works by Ugo La Pietra, Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi, Alberto Grifi, and Eastern European artists like Ivan Kožarić, Deimantas Narkevičius, Jaan Toomik, Marko Pogacnik, and Vyacheslav Akhunov. A final essay on Meschac Gaba addresses postcolonial representation and the museum as a deterritorialized space. Mao Tongqiang's forensic archive critiques historical amnesia and domination.