Aga Wielocha
Electronic Media Review, Volume Seven: 2021-2022
ABSTRACT
Most professional definitions describe the conservation and preservation of collections as one of the main duties of a museum, or one axis of a museum’s activities (Desvallées & Mairesse, 2010). Conventionally, the musealisation of an artwork, its inclusion in a museum’s collection, is related to the transfer of owner- ship and control to an institution. However, recent studies of the preservation of contemporary art forms including digital and net-based art stress the importance of the involvement of external stakeholders, especially artists, in the preservation effort. The gap between the two competing notions of exclusiveness and collaboration calls for new approaches to institutional collecting and related professional processes and practices.
In 2016, M+, in Hong Kong, acquired the entire body of work, past and future, of Seoul-based internet art duo YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (YHCHI). The initial batch of works included more than 450 animations created in the now-obsolete format of Adobe Flash. The collectible consists of videos that YHCHI share on their website accompanied by drafts and preparatory work, artworks that were previously presented as installations, and public performance lectures. Works produced after the submission of the first batch are delivered to M+ every six months, for as long as the artists make new work and present their projects.
M+’s decision to acquire a still-expanding oeuvre by living artists questions the traditional concepts of ownership and control over what can be collected. What does it mean to own something that is broadly accessible within the public domain of the internet? How is it possible to preserve and care for art that has not yet been created?
This paper addresses these challenges by examining the notion of guardianship as introduced in contemporary museum ethics by Janet Marstine and the potential of this notion for facilitating the preservation of inherently changeable art forms. Guardianship privileges forms of shared responsibility and shared ownership, in which museums and creators work together towards securing the continuity of the collectible. Current museological discourses point to guardianship as a means to respect the dynamic, experiential, and contingent nature of a collectable heritage and to offer a new framework for sharing rights and responsibilities (Marstine, 2011). By shifting the role of a museum from owner to facilitator, guardianship puts in focus the establishment of long-term partnerships between institutions and creators or source communities, as well as the quality of these relationships.
By analysing how the unique relationship between M+ and YHCHI unfolds and how it contributes to the preservation of artists’ legacy, this paper will ponder over potential ways of applying the notion of guardianship as a framework for collecting contemporary art forms.
REFERENCES
Desvallées, A., & Mairesse, F. (Eds.). (2010). Key Concepts of Museolog. Paris:
Armand Colin; ICOM. Available at https://icofom.mini.icom.museum/publications/key-concepts-of-museology/.
Marstine, J. (Ed.). (2011). The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum (1st ed.). Routledge. Available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203815465.
AUTHOR
Aga Wielocha
Conservator, Preventive
M+ Museum Limited, Hong Kong