It has been polemically argued that the most important aesthetic productions of the twentieth century have not been objects, buildings, or spaces, but exhibitions. There is a curious imbalance, however, between the centrality claimed for exhibitions and their fugitive character--exhibitions collect artifacts, exist briefly, and are then dispersed.
Documentary Remains explores what we know of exhibitions through questioning archives, records, documents, and other forms of remains. With exhibition research and curatorial practices gaining increasing prominence as a mode of conceptual and historical thought, this edited volume (based on a conference hosted by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation) revisits the stakes of exhibitions as they have developed across the history of architectural modernism as well as their current position within the field.
