Dear colleagues and friends,

I am happy to inform you that my latest project

www.archiveresonance.net - an archive of memories

is online and awaiting your visit!

Best wishes,

Eva Olthof

The project

www.archiveresonance.net is a project that arose from the abrupt moment in which a building, safeguarding the memory of Cologne, collapsed and entered history itself.
On March 3, 2009, the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne collapsed. The archival material was completely buried in an enormous pit underneath rubble and
concrete debris. Two people lost their lives, many people had to leave their homes.

Over the next thirty years each deed, plan, photograph or other document will be cleaned by hand and categorized anew in order to rebuild the archive that once was.
Something which is perhaps more difficult to restore is the ‘psyche’ of Cologne in relation to this disaster. The questions I pose in the project Archiveresonance.net are:
What kinds of memories do Cologne residents have of that day? What is their relationship to the archive? What does losing a city archive implicate?

www.archiveresonance.net aims to give an insight into residents’ memories and thoughts and to set in motion a parallel ‘restoring process’. This growing archive comprises of different perspectives collected since September 2013. It contains contributions from both long-time and new residents; from frequent users to people that did not know about its existence before 3.3.2009; from individuals who donated family archives and from people who were in the building that particular day.

The ‘resonance’ in the form of memories from Cologne citizens following this event will be kept here, easily accessible for anyone interested in the construction of history in general and the collapse of this archive in particular.

Crowdfunding Campagne

The website is bilingual but at the moment, the interviews are only partly available in English. To complete the translation of the 50 interviews that are currently online a crowdfunding campagne has kicked of last week and will run to March 25th.

The aim amount is €1500. If you would like to support the project with €10 or €20, please have a look at STARTNEXT

Credits

Graphic Design: Maarten Brandenburg & Kim de Groot (Rotterdam)
Webdevelopment: Annemieke van der Hoek (Rotterdam)
Supported by: Opekta Ateliers Cologne, ArchivKomplex Cologne, Köln kann auch Anders, The Historical Archive of the City of Cologne & Het Wilde Weten Rotterdam