Black Archive Germany

Black Archive Germany (Zine) No. 1 will be out on October 24, and celebrates its release at PACT Zollverein’s WerkStadt in Essen-Katernberg!

Black Archive Germany understands itself as an artistic, publishing, and archival practice that makes Black art and cultural production in Germany visible.

At the heart of the archive is a collection of photographs that have been entrusted to them. Rather than understanding these images solely as records of the past, Black Archive Germany sees them as opening connections between past, present, and future. They invite us to ask how Black life in Germany can be remembered and reimagined. Therefore archiving means more than collecting and preserving images. It means bringing photographs into relation with people, knowledge, histories, and artistic practices. BAG (Zine) No. 1 is a first space of possibility for this work. 

The contributors who were invited to participate in this issue were encouraged to work with their submitted/not submitted photographs, exploring different ways of engaging with their stories and images.

At the same time, it is an invitation: to contribute photographs, stories and memories. It gives families a sense of how their images might become part of the archive.

Black Archive therefore understands the presentation not simply as a release, but as a space of encounter between artists and local communities: an opportunity to come together, exchange ideas on how to build this archive together and celebrate. 

Bring your parents, your uncles, your aunties — and bring your photographs, too. During the event, you’ll have the chance to scan your photos. 

Music by ADJO from 6pm to 10pm. 

Funded by Interkultur Ruhr and Kunststiftung NRW.