In this series of brief interviews, we pose two fundamental questions to a variety of experts who work with, in, and on performance and conservation:
1) Can performance be conserved? If so, how? If not, why not?
2) What does it mean to conserve performance?
Dive into the range of responses from conservators, art historians, historians of science, folklorists, curators, performance studies scholars, artists, and other leading voices:
Option 1.
Option 2.
Option 3.
Option 4.
Philip Auslander, Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia; author of several seminal publications on the topics of liveness, mediatization and documentation in performance and on popular music
Judit Bodor, Baxter Fellow in Curatorial Practice (Teaching & Research) at Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art & Design, University of Dundee
Sven Dupré, Director of the Research Institute for History and Art History of History of Art, and Professor of History of Art, Science and Technology at Utrecht University (History & Art History) and the University of Amsterdam (Conservation & Restoration)
Rebecca Gordon, art historian and conservation researcher, Associate Lecturer in History of Art, Department of History of Art, University College London
Tancredi Gusman, Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies in the Department of History, Humanities and Society, University of Rome Tor Vergata
Hannah Higgins, Professor of Intermedia and Avant-Garde Art and Culture, University of Illinois Chicago; author of Fluxus Experience (2002) and The Grid Book (2009); daughter of the Fluxus artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles
Pip Laurenson, Professor of Conservation at University College London and director of the new MSc in Conservation of Contemporary Art & Media which will launch in September 2023 at UCL East
Kate Lewis, Agnes Gund Chief Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Hélia Marçal, Lecturer in Art, Materials, and Technology at the Department of History of Art, University College London
Rachel Rivenc, Head of Conservation and Preservation, Getty Research Institute (GRI); former research specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) as part of the Modern and Contemporary Art Initiative
Sarah Cameron Sunde, interdisciplinary artist and director working at the intersection of performance, video and public art; 2022 awardee of the Guggenheim Fellowshisp to complete her ongoing series of works, 36.5 /A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013 – present, nine works on six continents)
Diana Taylor, Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University’ s Tisch School of the Arts and the founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
Kay Turner, artist and scholar working across disciplines including performance, writing, music, exhibition curation, and public and academic folklore; former director of the Brooklyn Arts Council‘s Folk Arts Program
Glenn Wharton, Professor of Art History and Professor of the Conservation of Material Culture at University of California, Los Angeles and Chair of the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
VIDEOS COMING SOON
Jill Sterrett, arts and cultural heritage advisor, conservator, and museum professional; former director of collections and head of conservation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge 