Nell Donkers

Since 2002 Nell Donkers has been the custodian of the Archive (library, archive and collection) of de Appel in Amsterdam. The archive represents the memory of de Appel and has become a vital place for meeting and sharing knowledge between researchers, artists and art lovers, wherein Donkers plays a connecting role. In different set-ups, Donkers initiates and organizes presentations and events with, within and about the rich history of de Appel. She digitally safeguarded the data of de Appel, and made it public by reorganizing the digital framework en futureproofing the database. Donkers invited Archival Consciousness to think along with the implementation of RFID (Radio Frequency Identity tags) which culminated in biblio-graph.org, further expanding the archive into the public realm. In addition, she initiated The Remote Archivist, which she co-edits with graphic designer Bardhi Haliti. TRA is a recurring snail mail publication in which contemporary artists and researchers working with themes like archiving, bookmaking, systemizing and storytelling are invited to dive deep into the archive and re-calibrate the legacy of de Appel into the now.