"Caring for contemporary art: Reflections on ethics and aesthetics in precarious times"

Conservation of contemporary art is complicated because contemporary art works are very diverse in format and materials used. Traditionally, art conservation focuses on the protection of the original materials of which artworks work have been made and on the safeguarding of the maker’s intentions. Contemporary art has made this focus problematic: materials like fat, wax, chocolate, fruit, branches or plastics are less durable than oil paint on canvas or marble; technical equipment, such as slide projectors, TV monitors, and computer hard- and software become obsolete; or the work is meant to change and/or even disappear. This means that standard conservation-ethical guidelines have to be reconsidered. This lecture explores the notion of ‘care’ as an alternative way of approaching conservation-ethical questions and speculates whether ‘care-thinking’ can help to connect contemporary art conservation to the wider concerns of today’s precarious times.

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Language: English