Excavating History

Artist Rebecca Keller started making site-specific interventions in an anatomy theatre in Estonia in 2006. The project has since become a course, a collective, and a series of artist exhibitions in historic sites in the United States and Europe. This full-color book shares the stories of these exhibitions, student reflections, and essays from scholars with concerns in historic preservation and artistic interventions on historic sites. Keller carefully weaves together the context and motivation for these interventions, and offers suggestions for how to replicate her work in classroom-museums around the world. This project is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and by funding from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

How can contemporary artists unravel the stories embedded in a historic site? Artist Rebecca Keller started making site-specific interventions in an anatomy theatre in Estonia in 2006. Excavating History has since become a college course, a collective, and a series of artist exhibitions in historic sites in the United States and Europe.
Excavating History as a project unfolds and liberates from dust the stories of our past so they can vibrate in the present moment. The practice that Rebecca Keller, her students, and affiliated artists are together refining and developing-that of interpreting the interpretations-creates a double hinge that opens out into imaginative and fictional spaces, even as the artists choose to navigate the material constraints of sanctioned historic sites. This book provides a crucial link between these projects, each one intense and specific. -A. Laurie Palmer, artist and Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Excavating History challenges revered assumptions about the role of history in contemporary life and how its public value is created. Through compelling case studies that embody the concept of excavating as both metaphor and methodology, Keller shows that artists' unique training in visual culture allows them to illuminate and interpret the multiple layers of evidence that historic sites often ignore, hide, or simply don't see. Excavating History is not only an insightful meditation on the intersection of art and history but also a clear call for archivists, historians, and curators to partner with artists to harness the power of history. -Russell Lewis, Executive Vice President and Chief Historian, Chicago History Museum Throughout these essays, there is a moral passion that ignites our collective imaginations about truth in history and the history of truth. For anyone who cares about whose stories get told and whose are left out and censored read his book-you will be left reeling, provoked, intellectually challenged and inspired. -Lisa Yun Lee, Director of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum