How can performance art be preserved for the future? And what might conservation theory and practice offer other disciplines seeking to understand art’s most ephemeral medium?
This four-year research project combines knowledge, theory, history, and practices from conservation, art practice, and art history to investigate the preservation of performance art, its material and immaterial traces, and its life (and afterlife) in museums and other institutions.
The project is hosted by the Institute Materiality in Art and Culture at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB), which is part of the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). We are funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Led by Dr. Hanna Hölling, a pioneering conservator of time-based media art and researcher in conservation theory, our team also includes Valerian Maly, experienced artist, curator, writer, and professor of performance; Julia Pelta Feldman, an art historian and independent curator with specialties in ephemeral artworks and conservation history; and Emilie Magnin, a time-based media conservator and doctoral student of art history. You can learn more about our backgrounds on our Team page.
Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge 