As institutional facilities and also as a metaphor, archives allegorize processes such as concealing and discovering, preserving and destroying, remembering and forgetting. They hold history and stories and give rise to them at the same time. They therefore link past, present and future. But how does this work? What is preserved in what form and under what conditions? Which memories remain present in the collective memory, and which fall into oblivion? The exhibition touched on these questions, although without being able to provide explanatory answers. It instead strived to sensitize visitors to such contexts through shedding light on everyday activities and work processes connected with archives, like a spotlight. The focus was on thematic areas dedicated to the keywords: preserving, documenting, collecting and exploring. As part of this, image, text and audio media from the archive of the Draiflessen Collection were placed in dialogue with artistic positions. On exhibit were works by Candida Höfer, Julian Rosefeldt, Arnold Dreyblatt, Gianfranco Baruchello, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters and Mariana Castillo Deball. Supported by filmic and digital media, the exhibition thus invited visitors to take part in aesthetic experiences intended to make the archive understandable as a modern and innovative form of expression, and as a crosser of borders between administration and art.