‘Public Knowledge’ is based around two influential film archivists on opposing sides of the debate between preservation and circulation.

The play Lindgren & Langlois: The Archive Paradox is a dramatised exchange of letters constructed from the writing, correspondence and commentators of Ernest Lindgren, the BFI National Film Archive’s first curator – careful, scientific and restrained by public responsibilities and budgets – and Henri Langlois, the flamboyant and passionate co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française who collected, saved, and screened as widely as possible. The work exists as annotated script, live performance and video installation.

Two large-scale drawings depict photocopies of diagrams drawn by each archivist depicting their own archive. At Grand Union, the work was displayed with an archive of materials and library.