UDP Internacional

Friday November 14th, 2025

Between September and October, the FAAD UDP International Workshop – Archiving Machines took place, an academic experience that brought together students and professors of Architecture, Art, and Design from Diego Portales University for a journey through Madrid, Berlin/Dessau, and Venice—three emblematic European cities for reflecting on the materialities, institutions, and politics of the contemporary archive.

Coordinated by Alejandra Celedón, dean of the faculty, and with an interdisciplinary teaching team composed of Serena Dambrosio (architecture), Bernardita Croxatto (art), and Pedro Silva (design), the workshop aimed to explore how archival practices shape forms of knowledge, representation, and memory in material culture.

The first stage, in Madrid (September 22–26), focused on the modes of production, conservation, and exhibition of artistic and scientific archives in public and private institutions. The program included meetings at the Complutense University of Madrid with Javier Pérez Iglesias and Selina Blasco, and at the Polytechnic University of Madrid with Almudena Ribot and a group of researchers who presented critical perspectives on archives and cultural-territorial extraction.

Participants visited the Geomineral Museum, Espacio SOLO, the Telefónica Foundation, the ARKHÉ Archive (Queer and Ibero-American Art Archive), and the Reina Sofía National Art Centre Museum, where they held conversations with Lola Hinojosa and Alberto Medina about documentation and conservation policies in contemporary museums.

The itinerary also included a visit to the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, a guided tour of the Paseo del Prado, and a closing day at the Prado Museum, where participants accessed the archives of the Casón del Buen Retiro. These activities offered a cross-cutting perspective on the links between art, archives, and tangible heritage in the city.

The second stage of the workshop took place in Dessau and Berlin (September 29–October 3), focusing on the Bauhaus as a paradigmatic institution in the modern history of archives, pedagogy, and design. In Dessau, the group was hosted by Regina Bittner and Philipp Oswalt, and participated in guided tours of the Bauhaus buildings, the Masters’ Houses, and the collections of the Bauhaus Archive.

Workshops and working sessions were held in the museum’s educational space, led by Pedro Silva, which explored the relationships between teaching, archives, and design practice. The stay culminated in a collective reflection and closing exercise, followed by a series of visits to cultural institutions in Berlin.

The final stage took place in Venice (October 6–11), where the group focused on the architectural and artistic archives that articulate the city’s memory and its international projection. Visits included the Venice State Archives, the Historical Archives of the Accademia di Belle Arti, the IUAV Projects Archives, and the Historical Archives of the Venice Biennale, both in Porto Marghera and in the Giardini.

In addition, the students explored the Archive of the Patriarchate of Venice, the OMA studio’s Diagrams exhibition at the Fondazione Prada, and the venues for the Biennale Architettura 2025 at the Arsenale and the Giardini. Through these experiences, the students were able to directly observe how archives contribute to shaping institutional relationships, curatorial practices, and the materialities of art and architectural history.

Throughout its three stages, Archiving Machines constituted a learning space that connected contemporary places, practices, and debates about archives. The workshop journey allowed participants to understand the archive not only as a repository of the past, but also as an active device in cultural production and in the ways of imagining shared futures.