Memory and archive in the digital age: Tensions between remembrance and storage

Abstract

The article examines how digitization transforms the relationship between the archive and collective memory, highlighting tensions between the massive accumulation of data and the construction of meaningful narratives. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, it mobilizes the concept of anarchivism as a critical response to digital storage logics. Through the study of works such as Paisaje para una persona (2015) by Florencia Levy, The Killing of Dilan Cruz (2023) and Tear Gas in Plaza de la Dignidad (2020) by Forensic Architecture, and Kith and Kin (2024) by Archie Moore, the article demonstrates how contemporary art generates counter-narratives that recontextualize memory. It concludes that the archive should be understood not as an end in itself but as a potential space for critical activation; specifically, the digital archive, due to its vast scale, impedes the processes of recollection. Therefore, its effectiveness depends on the capacity to transform it into a performative act that connects past and present, providing tools to envision possible futures in which artistic practices enable the revaluation of the past and the activation of new forms of meaning in today's digital context.