Claudio Hils

The experience of conflict is deeply embedded in Belfast's collective consciousness. Evidence of conflict is contained within information archives throughout the city, where photography is employed as a means of interpreting, objectively, the effects of violence. Medical X ray technology registers the body as site of trauma, police forensic photography particularizes scenes of crime, surveillance cameras militarizes civic space. These archives are extensive, systematically organized, and primarily contingent on use. In contrast private and semi-public stores of conflict-related memorabilia are presently being formulated into official public archives. As collections of objects (uniforms, propaganda) become redundant, they are recontextualized and transformed into historical artifacts. Archive_Belfast observes a history under construction. Exhibition Schedule: Belfast Exposed Photography, Belfast April 9 - May 21, 2004 Galerie J.J. Heckenhauer, Berlin November 20, 2004 – January 4, 2005