Paper Short Abstract:

Subversive archives are an important practice for activists within the Women in Black network in the (post-)Yugoslav space. A key feature of their archival projects is their dynamic and incomplete nature, which makes them a living practice and opens up possibilities for a new model of citizenship.

Paper Abstract:

Activists within the Women in Black network are acutely aware that their acts of disobedience will not be included in official histories or narratives. As a result, they challenge the monopoly on official memory and maintain subversive archives, even though they are not considered legitimate subjects of official history or archiving. They collect and document their lived experiences, which ultimately form a socio-political history of the ongoing, organized repression they face as activists. Through this process, they capture the myriad ideas, issues, tensions, and experiences that shape their daily lives as activists and citizens with incomplete rights. They resist the erasure of their history, practices, actions, and demands. The knowledge and experiences they accumulate offer insight into the dynamics of activism, reflecting on the construction of political power and subjectivity within citizenship regimes.

Their subversive archives take the form of a living, collaborative practice that embraces the complexity of voices, perspectives, and everyday life. As such, they become a dynamic, unfinished, critical, polyphonic, and fragmented "co-archive." These archives intervene in social memory and commemorative practices, deepening our understanding of the past, present, and future.

This paper explores how subversive co-archiving practices within the activist network empower them to control what is archived, how it is archived, and the broader social implications of these actions.