Artists

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Robert Rehfeldt

Press release

Home Archive(s) investigates how we classify, preserve, systematize, and, above all, care for memories. Bringing together artworks, personal belongings, and ephemera found in the home of the late artists Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and Robert Rehfeldt, the exhibition offers a live demonstration of the archival practices surrounding their Mail Art Archive, which has been housed at the gallery since 2018. Rooted in the Mail Art movement’s pursuit of alternative modes of circulation and production, Home Archive(s) challenges conventional notions of artistic value through its experimental exhibition format. By opening the archive to visitors, it seeks to honor the movement’s enduring spirit of exchange and accessibility. Through the ongoing processes of sorting, contextualizing, assessing, and interpreting extensive materials, the exhibition revisits the historical realities that shaped the creative practices of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and Robert Rehfeldt. The remaining objects, documents, and sketches from the Rehfeldts’ private residence are brought into a new dialogue with completed artworks, allowing what is less visible to emerge in relation to one another. This replicates the intentions of the international Mail Art movement, particularly from the 1970s and 1980s, which in some cases operated under totalitarian and oppressive regimes and thus resisted demands for conformity and obedience. The Mail Art Movement remains significant as a reminder of a time when art could no longer be confined to a single, autonomous object. Conceptually, it meant that art could take the form of a sheet of paper or even its reproduction, and circulate across borders, challenging traditional ideas of uniqueness and exclusivity. Home Archive(s) extends this idea to the act of archiving itself, suggesting that value lies not only in the object, but also in the relationships, histories, and acts of preservation connected to it.