The Passenger Retrospective of the Minerva Press Photo Archive: Publishing of a Research Infrastructure

• Main Author: Szilárd Miklós
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Museum of the Romanian Peasant 2019-11-01
• Series: Martor
• Subjects: romania; post-socialist transition; press photography; archive; public do­main; appropriation; contemporary art; conset
• Online Access: http://martor.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/archive/martor-24-2019/13_miklos/

Minerva Archive consists of more than 30,000 negatives that belonged to some of the largest daily newspapers of Cluj-Napoca: the Hungarian daily Igazság and the Romanian daily Făclia. The pictures were taken between 1965 and 1990 by several photojournalists. The collection has been saved and stored ever since by the Minerva Cultural Association in Cluj. The collection was finally digitized in 2015 with the support of a private foundation, and since 2016 it has been available online in its entirety. The fonds first became part of the Conset Studio program thanks to Dénes Miklósi, in 2014. Conset Studio has been involving various actors in the activation of the archive in the public domain. The practice of reintroducing the archive to the public included an exhibition that brought together several other types of collections and disciplinary perspectives, as well as a month-long daily newspaper campaign to reach out to the community of workers represented.