Critical Conservation
Critical Conservation redefines conservation as a discursive, pluricultural, decolonial and epistemic activity shaped by politics, conventions, education, the economy and institutions.
Steckbrief
- Beteiligte Departemente Hochschule der Künste Bern
- Institut(e) Institut Materialität in Kunst und Kultur
- Forschungseinheit(en) Contemporary Art and Media
- Förderorganisation SNF
- Laufzeit (geplant) 01.02.2026 - 31.01.2030
- Projektleitung Dr. Hanna Barbara Hölling
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Projektmitarbeitende
Dr. Samidha Pusalkar
Marcello Rechberger
Dr. Juliana Robles de la Pava
Ausgangslage
What is conservation, and what does it mean to conserve ? In the realm of art and culture, conservation has multiple meanings. Traditionally associated with the physical enhancement of both the structure and appearance of objects imbued with specific value – particularly in the West, where it has been linked with expert mending, repair, and restoration – conservation today has evolved beyond merely prolonging the material lives of objects. It now engages with materiality rather than just the material, exploring how an object’s identity and meaning are entangled with concepts of time, space, environment, values, politics, economy, conventions and culture. Additionally, conservation extends beyond its focus on “objects” to include subjects, addressing the intersubjective and intergenerational transmission of tradition, memory, skills, techniques and expertise – whether tangible or intangible.
Vorgehen
Emerging from the critical-reflective developments of recent decades – particularly in the realms of contemporary art and “ethnographic object” conservation – “Critical Conservation” seeks to engage and learn with present-day communities of practice, including traditional knowledge-holders, makers, artisans and craftsmen who have historically been positioned outside the expert domain of professional and scholarly conservation in the West (subproject 1). Through transversal conservation, the project brings together separate fields of practice such as contemporary art conservation, architectural preservation and archaeological conservation, which otherwise often operate independently (subproject 2). Finally, it explores experimental conservation as a means to envision possible futures of the discipline (subproject 3).
