NACCA Summer School Cologne, 25-29 June 2018
Advances in the conservation of contemporary art require discussions on fundamental questions concerning the identity, values and authenticity of modern and contemporary artworks; historically grown distinctions between specialisms; and transitions and transformations within the museum.
The two-day conference on 25-26 June, 2018, organized by TH-Köln and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network ‘New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art’ (NACCA) at the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences (CICS) in Cologne (Germany) provided a cross-disciplinary forum for conservation professionals, art historians, conservation scientists, and students to address those issues. Presentations by the ITN Research Fellows in collaboration with guest keynote speakers introduced preliminary results of their interdisciplinary and intersectoral research and training collaboration for the conservation of contemporary art. Through the discursive lens, speakers and participants explored a broad range of urgent questions related to intent, authorship, and authentication of contemporary artworks, the various challenges contemporary artworks can present when facing institutional conventions, the ontology of transforming contemporary artworks, the types and impacts of reproduction of contemporary artworks and the relevance of cross-disciplinary networks for the conservation of contemporary art.