Once again, we invited Nicole Savoy, an alumna of the Hochschule der Kรผnste Bern, Conservation of Modern Materials and Media, to report on our research festival. Nicole offers a conservatorโs perspective on the performance conservation methods explored during the event, both traditional and radical. See also Nicole's previous reports on our thirdย andย second colloquiumย as well as her earlier review of our conversation with Claire Bishop.
Conserving Performance by Performing Networks of Care, by Friederike Schรคfer
Art historian and postdoctoral researcher Friederike Schรคfer reflects on the fifth day of our research festival and exhibition, Conserving Performance, Performing Conservation (September 14โ29, 2024). This event invited discussions among artists, activists, conservators, and cultural workers across sectors, with the thematic focus "Collecting and Preserving as an Act of Care."
Collecting and Preserving Performance Art in Brazil: Establishing Protocols for Musealization in Public Museums, by Fernanda Werneck Cรดrtes and Anna Paula da Silva
The acquisition of performance art by museums in Brazil faces challenges due to its ephemeral nature, requiring living bodies, financial resources, and extensive documentation. To address this, the Musealization of Art (mARTE) research group has launched a project to create protocols that guide Brazilian public museums in acquiring and preserving performance art, focusing on cataloging, conservation, legal aspects, and activation history.
Not, Yet: When Our Art is in Our Hands – Rebecca Schneider and Hanna Hรถlling
When we ask about how to conserve performance-based art, what are we asking? If we think of performance as itself a mode of conservation, what are we thinking? What is at stake in conserving changeability? Variability by design is as old as storytelling and the โchanging same,โ to quote Amiri Baraka, is a powerful mode of survivance. Thinking with hands, in this antiphonal call and response, a talking-with, Rebecca Schneider and Hanna Hรถlling consider what performance might teach us about endurance, duration, fungibility and the โnot, yet.โ What are the conditions in which the โnot, yetโ can thrive?
Expanding Conservation, Expanding Performance | Megan Metcalf’s Field report from 2024 Congrรจs International du Comitรฉ International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) in Lyon
Our associated researcher, Megan Metcalf, is guest-reporting for โPerformance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledgeโ (PCMK) from the 2024 Congrรจs International du Comite International dโHistoire de lโart (CIHA) conference in Lyon, France.
Sara Wookey: Dance is Hard to See – Transmitting Trio A (1966) and other Acts of Preservation
Sara Wookey, a dance artist, choreographer and scholar, reflects on Yvonne Rainerโs work Trio A (1966) through the lens of bodily and verbal transmission, methods of remembering and material pedagogical tools. She also discusses her own work, Punt.Point, which entered the collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 2018. In the pursuit of reactivating and preserving dance and expanded choreographic practices in the art museum, what might be missing in the performance archive and in the recording of the transmission processes?
Living materials โ Cori Olinghouse and Megan Metcalf on the ethics and principles for embodied stewardship
Artist and archivist Cori Olinghouse and art historian Megan Metcalf employ four illustrative examples to explore how an embodied approach to archives and acquisitions transforms traditional conservation paradigms. They critically examine the evolving vocabulary for the continuation of performance over the long term.
Urmimala Sarkar Munsi: On Dance and Preservation in India
Curious about how performance and dance conservation is practiced in India and what can be learned from Indian dance research and dance as research, the team of Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge has recently met with Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, who is an expert in social anthropology, dance studies and choreography.
