Last month, Malaysia made the country’s first deposit of fine artworks in the Arctic Would Archive, media Opinions writes.
The Arctic World Archive is a facility offering permanent data preservation, located 300 meters inside a decommissioned coal mine on the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard.
Established in 2017, the facility is designed to withstand natural and man-made disasters because the combination of resilient long-term storage technology and the remote, safe, and cold conditions found on Svalbard, enables data to live on into the distant future.
Malaysia’s first deposit of artworks included artworks from the personal collection of U C Loh and Jamal Al-Idrus, co-founders of Artemis Art gallery, which represents and promotes young and emerging Southeast Asian artists. The collection was in conjunction with the launch of Piql, Malaysia’s digital Art Provenance Archival Solution.
Artemis Art owners U C Loh and her husband Jamal Al-Idrus when they were first introduced to piqlFilm late last year when the pandemic forced the co-founders to close their space at Publika, Kuala Lumpur, and move their shows online.
Speaking on how Artemis made the first Malaysian deposit with Arctic World Archive, Loh said to Options, “The creative industry has suffered greatly due to the pandemic, and we were not spared. We are optimistic about the journey ahead, and maybe that was one of the reasons to take on the Piql archival solution.”
“Storing the provenance information on piqlFilm ensures that all proof of authenticity is securely kept as the integrity of the information will last for over 1,000 years,” Loh explained.
Loh and Jamal could not be there but sent a video to Piql Norway to present during the ceremony.
