Miroslav Zdovc: Contextualising the Archive

Abstract

In this paper a case study of constructing a photographic archive in a museum context, and the ways of contextualising seemingly marginal and insignificant photographic material, is being showcased and analysed. The focal point of the paper is the personal photographic archive of Miroslav Zdovc (1929–2009), a prominent Slovenian professional photographer as well as an artist using photography who, however, did not receive a deserved place in local and regional history of photography and art. Therefore, his extensive body of work that has nearly disappeared from the public eye is now in the process of being reviewed and re-evaluated. His extensive archive consists of diverse materials: personal imagery, documentary photographs, documents of artworks, and (his own) photographic artworks. The paper thus presents the project in the making in which the curators of Božidar Jakac Gallery – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki have been conducting the process of cataloguing, evaluating and finally showcasing his immense body of work. It also brings forward the most significant elements of his artistic practice that spanned from the 1950s to the 1990s, and which was changing and developing in accordance with the concurrent tendencies in photography and art.