Simone Miller

Ph.D. candidate, assistant lecturer, department for conservation

Technische Universität München

Period

Doctoral research began in January 2007

Title

Material and Idea – Artists’ Concepts and their Influence on Conservation Strategies (working title)

Keywords

contemporary art, artists’ concepts, process art, idea and material, conservation theory, ethics, minimal art, land art, Medienwechsel

Abstract

„Works of art are neither purely mental nor purely aesthetic things. They always consist of matter, because a thought alone is still no work of art. “

(Thomas Raff, Die Sprache der Materialien, Anleitung zu einer Ikonologie der Werkstoffe. [The language of the materials, guidance for the iconology of the materials], Munich 1994, P. 126)

„The original is limited to the idea, all aids is exchangeable. “

(Nam June Paik)

These two quotations show extremely opposite points of view. Dealing with contemporary art you are often confronted with those opposite meanings. The more present art is the more becomes the art term extended and diverse. This refers not only to material and form, but also to the requirement on transitory. Above all event and process take more and more place, e.g. in installations of Thomas Hirschhorn or John Bock. Media art and Happening/Performance should also be mentioned here.

The focus of the thesis is on works of the contemporary art, which are shown up in museums and collections. Contemporary art and its handling is a quite much treated topic in conservation publications. The quantity of the contributions witnesses the explosiveness of the topic.

Request of this work is to analyze the traditional ethics of conservation against contemporary art and to discuss their validity and feasibility. Is the ethic still valid for contemporary art, as it represents for example Bruno Heimberg with the following words:

„Task of the restorer is it to keep the original work of art as intact as possible. Original means not only the visible surface, the term contained rather the entire material structure united by the artist. The material structure is subject to a more or less aggressive aging process, which leaves more or less visible ageing traces.

These traces are to be regarded in principle as part of the original. Each interference into the original substance of a work of art means a loss of originality. “

(Bruno Heimberg, Die Einwirkung ästhetischer Kategorien auf allgemeine Restaurierungsgrundsätze [The effect of aesthetic categories on general restoration principles], ZKK 5/91, number 1, P. 91)

Which feasibility do these principles have, where are their limits, where the possibilities in the conservation of contemporary art? Are there art works, which are subject to another ethic and require new handling?

This work should make a contribution to develop new conservation strategies for contemporary art. As far as these are enormous questions and the field of contemporary art shows a variety that is overwhelming, the aim is to show different works of art that deal in a very specific way with idea and material.

Supervisors

Prof. Erwin Emmerling

Language

German, Abstract in english

Contact

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