Galeria Centralis is both an integral part and an extension of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives: it reflects on, opens up, and makes available to the larger public what is usually hidden, unavailable, and used only by a select group of researchers. The exhibition hall and its virtual incarnation provide additional space for reflection on the nature of the archive and the document, bringing into question the relationship between the past and the present, their perception and representation. By relating textual traces of the past to visual signs, by presenting radically new contexts for the objects of the past, it allows for unexpected new readings.
The Galeria aims at resonance : helping visitors to understand the dynamics of the world from which the documents (text, images, and objects) emerge, and to witness the changes that the interplay of the documents in new contexts creates.
The Galeria, especially its virtual version, is consciously used as an educational tool for institutions of higher learning, balancing on the intersection between creative artistic presentation and scholarly representation, and provides specific, high-quality material on recent history and human and information rights.