Contemporary art conservation requires a re-assessment of the distinction between the work and its re-configuration in documentation. Although documentation is crucial for the survival of many contemporary works of art, it is never neutral: all approaches, formats, media and systems have their own inherent affordances and blind spots and always transform what they document. Furthermore, in process-centered, technology-based or performative artworks in particular, we often can no longer make a sharp distinction between an original work and its subsequent documentation or replication: documentation is part of the work's very core.

Contemporary art conservation requires a re-assessment of the distinction between the work and its re-configuration in documentation.

Although documentation is crucial for the survival of many contemporary works of art, it is never neutral: all approaches, formats, media and systems have their own inherent affordances and blind spots and always transform what they document. Furthermore, in process-centered, technology-based or performative artworks in particular, we often can no longer make a sharp distinction between an original work and its subsequent documentation or replication: documentation is part of the work's very core.

On the other hand, even the most meticulously documented works will need to be re-installed or re-performed regularly in order to survive, because otherwise important tacit know-how will get lost.

The role of the artist in this process is central, but contested: what if s/he changes her mind, loses interest or is no longer available? And what if the authorship of the work is distributed over several actors? Also, the role of the conservator has taken new dimensions: conservation responsibilities and tasks are now distributed over a diversity of agents.

Programa

20^th June

09:00

Registration

09:50

Welcome

10:00

NECCAR Presentation

Renée van de Vall

10:10

Documenting the user experience: from Blast Theory's Rider Spoke, to RAMM's Moor Stories and Tate's Art Maps
Gabriella Giannachi

10:40

The role of artistic documentation in conserving and convey social relationships
Liliana Coutinho

11:00

Performing documentation and documenting performance: assessing methodologies for reinstallation and preservation
Rebecca Gordon

11:20

Coffee break

11:50

Performance art, its «documentation», its archives – about the longing for recollection, the quality of forgetting and new possibilities of transmission of contemporary art
Irene Mullër

12:10

Poster session

12:30

Discussion led by Erma Hermens

13:00

Lunch

14:30

We don't need no documentation. Reflections on the practice of remembrance.
Vivian van Saaze

15:00

Reactivation Strategies for Unstable Events
Jo Ana Morfin

15:20

Discussion led by Paolo Martore

15:40

Coffee break

16:10

Documentation of Contemporary Art Project Presentation
Rita Macedo e Lúcia Almeida Matos

16:20

(Project Documentation of Contemporary Art)
Hélia Marçal & Andreia Nogueira

16:40

(Project Documentation of Contemporary Art)
Cristina Barros Oliveira

17:00

Discussion led by Rita Macedo

17:30

Book presentation of Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art, Inside Installations and Installation Art and the Museum. An authors’ conversation featuring Tatja Scholte, Glenn Wharton, Julia Noordegraaf and Vivian van Saaze

17:50

Closing

21^th June

10:00

Welcome

10:10

Documenting dilemmas. On the relevance of ethically ambiguous cases
Renée van de Vall

10:40

Analysing Incommensurable Values in Contemporary Art Documentation: Insights from Cultural Sociology
Jan Marontate

11:00

Documenting the Artist Interview and Artist Participation for the purpose of Conservation of a Conceptual and Variable Installation by Jan Dibbets
Sanneke Stigter

11:20

Coffee break

11:50

artemak®. From a compilation of questionnaires … to a wiki-based online-platform … to an interdisciplinary documentation and research project
Ursula Haller, Erich Gantzert-Castrillo & Ivo Mohrmann

12:10

Poster session

12:30

Discussion led by  Gunnar Heydenreich

13:00

Lunch

14:30

Documenting the Analogue Past in Marijke van Warmerdam's Film Installations
Julia Noordegraaf

15:00

The quest for the survival of net art, or a speculative approach to documentation
Annet Dekker

15:20

Discussion led by Pip Laurenson

15:40

Coffee break

16:10

(Project Documentation of Contemporary Art)
Andreia Magalhães & Susana Lourenço Marques

16:20

(Project Documentation of Contemporary Art)
Teresa Azevedo

16:40

Public Access in the Age of Documented Art
Glenn Wharton

17:00

Discussion led by Lúcia Almeida Matos

17:30

Closing