reconnecting

01.02.2023 Museums & Social Issues: Contested Conservation

Museums & Social Issues - Contested Conservation.

Guest editors:
Dr. Lotte Arndt, researcher at the Technische Universität Berlin, arndt@tu-berlin.de
Prof. Dr. Noémie Etienne, professor at the University of Vienna, noemie.etienne@univie.ac.at
 
Museum conservation in the West has long focused on the physical preservation of objects. Today, the heritage regime is being questioned and challenged in many ways. If collecting, storing, and exhibiting have participated as epistemological tools in the classification of the world, can artifacts be reconnected to living practices? What changes are needed for concerned communities to take agency in storage? How can we rethink cultural transmission and reconceive the role of collections without reconducting the cultural hegemonies inscribed in their history? 

The special issue focuses on how conservation approaches and conceptions can be transformed by opening them up to multiple, even divergent, approaches. We aim to discuss object conservation not only as a Western practice with scientific ambitions starting in the late 19th century, but as a set of proceedings for preserving and transmitting, transforming and recontextualising in museums and beyond. Access to collections and rights to decide upon cultural heritage, even if this leads to its physical alterations or disappearance, are key questions. 

See full Call for Papers:

Museums & Social Issues: Contested Conservation - ArtHist.net: Fachforum der Kunstgeschichte / Archiv