the backroom is a research-oriented project that provides access to source materials which inform and support artists’ practice. Initiated in August 2005 in Los Angeles, the backroom is a temporary archive that focuses on artist’s interests and inspirations rather than the ‘final product’ of their practice, including contributions from an evolving line-up of over fifty artists.
People are invited to loan source material (objects, videos, magazines, photographs, ephemera, data and written anecdotes) that they have accumulated because of an interest they have with a subject or phenomena. The contributions could focus on a person, or event, or it may be a number of loosely associated documents, objects, audio or film footage that has relevance for the artist. The materials are sometimes related to a project in development, or they are something that hasn’t made its way into a work but relate to social, cultural or political stimuli.
the backroom has presented contributions by Akasegawa Genpei (compiled by Reiko Tomii), Richard Aldrich, John M. Armleder, Dodie Bellamy, Walead Beshty, Pierre Bismuth, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Anne Collier, Dennis Crompton (Archigram), Vaginal Davis, Olivier Debroise, Jeremy Deller, Kota Ezawa, Vince Fecteau, Peter Fillingham, Claire Fontaine, Aurelien Froment, Ryan Gander, Mario Garcia Torres, Felix Gmelin, Amy Granat, Sam Green, David Hatcher, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Matthew Higgs (White Columns), Paul Ramírez Jonas, William Jones, Adria Julia, Stephen Kaltenbach, Hassan Khan, Kevin Killian, Lars Laumann, Thomas Lawson, Jesse Lerner, Lim Tzay Chuen, Nate Lowman, Lu Jie, Marko Lulic, Raimundas Malasauskas, Erlea Maneros, Ari Marcopoulos, John Menick, Naeem Mohaiemen, Charlotte Moth, Julian Myers, Michelle O’Marah, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Raqs Media Collective, Sean Snyder, Tercerunquinto, Jeffrey Vallance, Miguel Ventura, Mark Verabioff, Bruce Yonemoto and Artur Zmijewski
the backroom is run by Magali Arriola, Kate Fowle and Renaud Proch
Danny Orendorff is the Project Manager of the backroom
This website is in process and will continue to be updated with new activities as well as a more comprehensive archive of all the projects and information on the participating artists.