The Archive of Memory

In conjunction with the exhibition Aby Warburg - The Mnemosyne Atlas, OSA Archivum will present Eric Breibart’s documentary The Archive of Memory, a symbolic interpretation of the provocative ideas of cultural historian Aby Warburg. The screening is on Thursday, April 17, 6pm.

The documentary will be introduced by the director, Eric Breibart. The discussion following the screening will be moderated by István Rév.(The event will be in English)

The Archive of Memory (25 min. 2003) is a visual essay of a filmmaker's response to the work of German art historian Aby Warburg. It is not a traditional film biography— Warburg himself only appears once, in a photograph, at the very end—but an attempt to translate some of Warburg's ideas from print to film. There are two interviews—philosopher Raymond Klibansky, who worked with Warburg in the 1920s, and British art historian Margaret Iversen who has written about him. The major part of the film combines excerpts from Warburg's lecture on his visit to the Pueblo and Hopi Indians with archival and contemporary film footage, photographs, and engravings.

About the Filmmaker

Eric Breitbart is a writer and documentary filmmaker based in New York City. He received a B.A. in comparative literature from Columbia University, did graduate work in French at Yale, and studied film at the I.D.H.E.C. in Paris. Among his films are portraits of Robert Indiana, Aby Warburg, Diego Rivera, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Harry Truman and the St. Louis World's Fair or 1904. His book on the anthropology exhibits at the fair, A World on Display, was published in 1997. His articles about film and popular culture have appeared in the New England Review, Cinemascope.it, Cinéaste, Metropolis, and American Film. He has lectured at film festivals and universities in Europe, Canada, and the United States, and was a consultant to the "Future of Work" exhibit at EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. He is currently working on a feature-length documentary about work, creativity, and the history of pin- making in France.