“An Unhappy Archive” brings together artistic and activist works such as photographs, videos, books, drawings and paintings that question the social norms of “happiness”. The term goes back to the theorist Sara Ahmed, who describes “unhappy archives” as a collective, feminist-queer and anti-racist project. This aims to advance not only social criticism and resistance, but also the pleasure and utopias made possible by supposed anti-figures like “the feminist killjoy”.
“An Unhappy Archive” was initiated as an exhibition at Les Complices* in Zurich by Andrea Thal in 2013, reinstalled at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe in 2014 and is now presented in an expanded form in this imaginary exhibition space of the edition.
To present the edition “An Unhappy Archive”, an “Unhappy Evening” organized by OOR SALOON with the international artists and musicians Maya Dunietz, Evan Ifekoya, AKW, Li Tavor & Moni Schori took place on 15 October 2016 at the Mark Müller Gallery in Zurich. The audio recording of this “Unhappy Session” and a PDF with photographs document the event are available for download.