A Genealogical Approach to The Disobedience Archive

This article examines the Disobedience Archive’s display, The Zoetrope, at the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, investigating how this nomadic video archive challenges conventional understandings of history and memory. By analyzing the installation’s unique spatial configuration, the paper demonstrates how its spiral form intertwines diverse times and subjectivities, thereby critiquing the idea of linear temporality. The article then employs Foucault’s concept of genealogy to better understand how archival material is accessed and experienced, moving beyond a chronological progression of events. Conceived by curator Marco Scotini as an atlas of contemporary resistance tactics, the archive reconfigures itself in each setup, bringing forth voices and practices marginalized by normativity that now, more than ever, demand recognition.