Archives are Hot! Artists in the Archive is a two-day program of workshops, talks and activations, developed in collaboration with CAST, Saluhan and An.Other Collective.

This event is part of Next Wave’s ALL School programming. ALL School is an artist-led learning program designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and idea swapping.

Check out the full program on the ALL School website, or read more below.

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER

Opening keynote with Jenna Lee
12pm–1.15pm
In this online opening keynote presentation, Jenna Lee will share how her art practice navigates and transforms the archives of language, history, and family. Through processes of deconstruction and reconstruction, Lee reimagines colonial texts and family narratives, drawing out what is lost, overlooked, or suppressed. Her work reconfigures books and language as living material, opening space for new readings of the past and possibilities for the future.

FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER

Book a full-day ticket for Friday 17 October, or book for individual events below:

Seven Portraits – Unbound exhibition tour
9am–10am
Join artist research Sofi Basseghi, collaborator Salme Geransar and Curator Linda Short at the State Library of Victoria for an artwork talk of Seven Portraits – Unbound (2025) is a multichannel video installation that explores notions of freedom expressed by Persian-speaking female poets across the past millennium, interpreted through performance. Drawing on and reimagining Nizami Ganjavi’s Haft Peykar (Seven Portraits) and 16th-century Persian miniature illuminations of this tale from the State Library of Victoria’s collection, the work weaves fact and fiction to reflect on women’s voices in history while resonating with contemporary socio-political contexts.

Monuments Tour
10am – 11am
Join Palawa man and artist researcher Dominic White (Trawlwoolway) and white settler artist researcher Amy Spiers on a tour of some of the monuments and public artworks around RMIT campus that will draw on both their research-based socially engaged, performative art practices. Grounded in their different positionalities and mutual interest in the histories archived on our streets through commemorative public art, together they will prompt attendees to consider the shared pasts and embodied memories that are, and are not, evoked by the artworks in the city’s (stolen) public spaces. Artworks discussed include Standing By Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner (2016) by Brook Andrew and Trent Walter and Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land (2019) by Vicki Couzens.

Archives are Hot! – Panel
11am – 12.30pm
This session brings together representatives from four different archives to share insights into their collections, current projects, and ways artists have engaged with their holdings. Each speaker will offer a short presentation highlighting the scope of their archive, examples of artist collaborations, and opportunities for creative engagement. Savannah Smith from City of Melbourne, Nick Devlin from RMIT Culture, Ange Bailey from Australia Queer Archives, and Ana Tiquia from State Library of Victoria.

Artists in the Archive – Panel
1.30pm – 3pm
Chair: Jacina Leong Panellists: Alexander Williams aka Pug, Nataša Čordašić, and Fayen d’Evie
This discussion will explore how artists engage with archives not only as repositories of history, but also as contested spaces that shape narratives, identities, and cultural memory. Working in, with, and against the archive, the panelists each navigate questions of absence, bias, and power—seeking to uncover, disrupt, and reimagine what is preserved and what is erased. The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A, inviting reflections and further provocations.

Workshop with Salote Tawale and Torika Bolatagici
3.30pm – 5pm
This collaborative workshop explores how personal histories connect to social and political narratives through visual mapping and collective storytelling, anchored in the Fijian dialogical form of talanoa. Participants are invited to create a shared mural using collage techniques to examine themes of displacement, connection, and identity.

SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER

Book a full-day ticket for Saturday 18 October, or book for individual events below:

Fieldnotes of Being, Together Workshop with An.Other Collective
10am – 12pm
The Fieldnotes on Being, Together Workshop follows on from An.Other Collective’s recent September exhibition and the Kickstart program. Fieldnotes on Being, Together returns as a relaxed drop-in workshop. Come whenever you like, stay as long as you like, and create your own ‘field notes’ to add to our growing archive of collective gathering, caring, struggling, making, and eating.

Honk! If you archive…
12.30pm – 5.30pm
Saluhan Collective presents Honk! If you archive…, an art bus tour for artists, archivists, and their allies, co-curated with The Great Book Return. Crossing both sides of the Birrarung, the ride blends curated snacks and bootleg bus games with exhibitions and curator talks at every stop. Visting Dukkana and MADA Gallery, retuning to RMIT – transport provided for $10 or meet us at each location.

This event has been made possible by City of Melbourne