TY - JOUR
T1 - Conservation in an era of participation
AU - Marçal, Hélia Pereira
N1 - Sem PDF.
Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/90040/2012)
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Despite performance art’s originary stance against art commodification and institutionalisation, performance artworks are slowly being historicised and preserved for future generations. This art genre can be defined as consisting of unrepeatable events, specific in time and space, which may persist in some form in the memories of those who experienced them or in their documentation. The paradoxical relationship between performance art and its perpetuation in time has led to the development of many frameworks for its preservation. Artworks consisting of participatory practices present challenges that go beyond the work’s preservation, as traditional documentation methods do not usually encompass their social dimension. Equally relevant is the discussion about what changes this participatory trend will bring to the role of the conservator and to conservation practice in general. With this in mind, it is important to understand the future of conservation in an era of participation, in particular, in light of the burgeoning institutionalisation of performance-based artworks. This paper aims to discuss these issues while proposing the concept of body-archive of the conservator as an operative concept to re-evaluate the way documentation is currently executed. To illustrate this notion, the work Identificacíon (1975) by the Portuguese artist Manoel Barbosa and the participatory practices involved in its documentation process will be discussed.
AB - Despite performance art’s originary stance against art commodification and institutionalisation, performance artworks are slowly being historicised and preserved for future generations. This art genre can be defined as consisting of unrepeatable events, specific in time and space, which may persist in some form in the memories of those who experienced them or in their documentation. The paradoxical relationship between performance art and its perpetuation in time has led to the development of many frameworks for its preservation. Artworks consisting of participatory practices present challenges that go beyond the work’s preservation, as traditional documentation methods do not usually encompass their social dimension. Equally relevant is the discussion about what changes this participatory trend will bring to the role of the conservator and to conservation practice in general. With this in mind, it is important to understand the future of conservation in an era of participation, in particular, in light of the burgeoning institutionalisation of performance-based artworks. This paper aims to discuss these issues while proposing the concept of body-archive of the conservator as an operative concept to re-evaluate the way documentation is currently executed. To illustrate this notion, the work Identificacíon (1975) by the Portuguese artist Manoel Barbosa and the participatory practices involved in its documentation process will be discussed.
KW - body-archive
KW - conservation
KW - documentation
KW - participation
KW - performance-based art
KW - process
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019600123&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/19455224.2017.1319872
DO - 10.1080/19455224.2017.1319872
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019600123
SN - 1945-5224
VL - 40
SP - 97
EP - 104
JO - Journal of the Institute of Conservation
JF - Journal of the Institute of Conservation
IS - 2
ER -