Restoration Theory applied to Installation Art

1
Restoration Theory applied to Installation Art

• Cornelia Weyer
• Restaurierungszentrum Düsseldorf
• Maastricht 11.05.2006

2

• Origin and type of four central rules of
  restoration theory
• Characteristic features of installation art
• Confrontation of restoration theory and
  installation art the conflict potential
• Conclusion

3
Origin and type of four central rules of
restoration theory

• Durability
• Authenticity
• Minimal intervention
• Reversibility

4
Origin and type of four central rules of
restoration theory

• Durability the restorer must use highly stable
  media to ensure that after the treatment the work
  of art stays unchanged for a long time -
  Scientific origin

5
Origin and type of four central rules of
restoration theory

• Authenticity The objective is the unfalsified
  preservation of an object, usually understood to
  be a work of art, but in more recent texts also
  to be an object of cultural heritage -
  philological origin

6
Origin and type of four central rules of
restoration theory

• Minimal intervention restricting intervention to
  what is absolutely necessary - museum context as
  opposed to monument conservation

7
Origin and type of four central rules of
restoration theory

• Reversibility /retreatability selection of
  materials and methods of a restorational
  intervention so as to leave room for later
  interventions

8
Characteristic features of installation art

• The significance of the relation between the
  parts and between the parts and the whole,
  including the setting

Thomas Hirschhorn, Doppelgarage, (2002),
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Doerner
Institut, München
9
Characteristic features of installation art

• Processuality - crossing the divide between
  pictorial and performance arts

Nam June Paik, One Candle (1991, 1996) Museum für
Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/M.
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Characteristic features of installation art

• Optical phenomena and the extension of sense
  perception to include the senses of audio,smell,
  taste and feeling

Fabrizio Plessi, Liquid Time (1993), Sammlung
ZKM, Karlsruhe
11
Characteristic features of installation art

• The observer as constitutive element

Ross Sinclair, Journey to the Edge of the World -
The New Republic of St. Kilda (1966), Hamburger
Kunsthalle
12
Characteristic features of installation art

• Art also about art

Ulrike Rosenbach, Glauben Sie nicht, daß ich
eine Amazone bin (1975), museum kunst palast,
Restaurierungszentrum Düsseldorf
13
Confrontation of restoration theory and
installation art the conflict potential

• Conservation of installation art by means of
  durable material? - object / significance

Dennis Oppenheim, Aging, Reina Sofia, Madrid
14
Confrontation of restoration theory and
installation art the conflict potential

• Authenticity of material and workmanship / aiming
  at giving the observer as authentic an aesthetic
  experience as possible (Bishop)

Thomas Hirschhorn, Doppelgarage (2002),
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Doerner
Institut, München
15
Confrontation of restoration theory and
installation art the conflict potential

• Minimal intervention / installation art has to
  fulfil a function going beyond display in a
  museum - similar to monumental heritage

Thomas Hirschhorn, Doppelgarage (2002),
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Doerner
Institut, München
16
Confrontation of restoration theory and
installation art the conflict potential

• Reversibility if re-installation is not
  necessarily the appropriate way of treatment?
  ephemeral character of some installation artworks

Ross Sinclair, Journey to the Edge of the World -
The New Republic of St. Kilda (1966), Hamburger
Kunsthalle
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Conclusion

• Loss of the material object as being a
  conservations main reference
• Change of roles from conservator-restorer to
  artists assistent
• social use - contemporary installation art -
  the intangible

18
Consequences

• Taking a step back from the conservator-restorers
  usual attachment to material and technique
• assess the effect of the work
• aesthetic appreciation
• readiness to engage with a works idiosyncrasies