Previously, the cultural platform SKLAD_ had initiated artistic explorations of archival themes through projects such as Memory. Untitled by Aron Rossman-Kiss, and Traces of Absence by Élisabeth Deny and Tareq Daoud. Two years later, the exhibition ‘Revisiting the Archives’ continued this conversation, placing local history - particularly the destruction of the Abkhaz archive by Georgian military forces - within the broader context of global contemporary art.

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In 20th- and 21st-century art, the archive has emerged as a central theme and medium. As a theme, it expresses the formation and loss of testimony, nostalgia, the search for personal and national identity, and colonial histories. As a medium, it has provided artists with new forms of expression: they experiment with different modes of cataloguing, incorporating archival folders, office supplies, found objects and documents into their works.

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The exhibition featured an improvised library with reproductions of works by key artists working with archives. This library served as both an educational and inspirational element of the exhibition, linking the participating artists to the history of contemporary art. Adgur Ampar presented a series of abstract ‘automatic’ drawings that document the artist’s subconscious and evoke deep, forgotten memories.

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Tatyana Ergunova and Konstantin Gretsov photograph abandoned houses in Eastern Abkhazia, presenting them as time capsules - frozen histories that continue to live on today. Arkhip Labakhua ironically exhibited an ‘archive’ of his artistic failures. Anton Ochirov employed painting in the style of Socialist Realism to amplify and problematise the mythology of war in the context of a new Abkhaz national project.