Safeguarding the integrity of a contemporary artwork and the restorer’s responsibility

Course description

Starting with Duchamp’s experience, and in an increasingly widespread fashion since the 1960s, works of art have, even objectively, become a complex and often easily reproducible system: in addition to the instances of an artistic object that can now deteriorate and occasionally even become totally dematerialised, artworks often consist in installations to be reactivated – time-based art – produced also with materials in everyday use that deteriorate and that are often subject to major display-related adaptations which alter their structure and identity on each occasion. 

The professional finds him/herself facing a complex work that cannot be perceived solely through observation of the object or through a reflection on its formal completeness, but that is defined and delineated also with a reconstruction of the artist’s intention through documents and instructions. All of this results in the need to update the notion of safeguarding the integrity of a work of art, of authenticity, of conservation and of restoration, to take into account the innovative proposals of contemporary artists.

Target audience

The course is designed for specialists and professionals in the field (restorers, restoration technicians, art historians, architects, scientists, registrars, museum curators and cultural heritage professionals) and for anyone wishing to update their skills and knowledge in the context of cultural heritage restoration and conservation.