Unfixed forms: a counterpose archives discussion group

At the heart of counterpose archives lies the interplay between ongoing redefinition and adaptation of knowledge and practice.

At the Melbourne Art Book Fair 2025, counterpose archives will host a collaborative discussion group – a space for writers, artists, designers, students and practitioners to come together and build a collective resource-toolkit to support both creative and critical practice.

This session draws from shelf documents: art library as practice, a publication that reimagines art libraries as a site of action, especially for those who identify as queer, as women, as Black, as Indigenous, as people of colour. Rather than a neutral archive, shelf documents positions the library as a generative space of resistance, relation and possibility.

In this discussion group, together we will explore the idea that the fixity of the printed word is animated by the acts of listening and speaking. The spoken word attunes us to difference, to reading and listening with empathy, and to engaging with multiple perspectives – principles explored in shelf documents.

Participants are invited to bring a resource that resonates with these ideas – text, sound, image, excerpt, gesture – anything that incites dialogue and offers alternative ways of knowing. We encourage engagement with resources that move beyond conventional formats and offer counterpoints to dominant narratives in the arts and art writing. Rather than thinking of resources as static, extractable or neatly categorised, we ask:

· What if a resource is relational?

· What happens when a resource unsettles more than it explains?

· When if it invites reflection rather than resolution?

· Can a resource include that which resists documentation?

To register your interest in participating, please email: counterposearchives@gmail.com

Positions limited.