Art Handling

This symposium on the topic of “art handling” thematizes a number of aspects that often remain invisible in the art scene: assembly and disassembly, technical and preservation-related documentation, storage, transport, insurance, and legal issues.

Over the course of the professionalization of the global art scene, the requirements pertaining to installational spatial works, as well as the handling thereof on the part of institutions, have continually become stricter, and documentation issues have also become more complex. Many works cannot be properly (re)installed without an extensive manual, and at the same, any such manual, no matter how extensive, leaves room for interpretation, much like a musical score. Particularly with regard to installational works, it is becoming clear that, on the one hand, new work concepts or works are changing the requirements pertaining to the “infrastructure” of museums. On the other hand, such “infrastructures”, which now exist in many places, are also directly stimulating the emergence of certain art forms. In this symposium, these aspects of art handling are described and contextualized from various practical and academic perspectives.

The symposium is organized by Christoph Lang and Lucie Kolb, Lucerne School of Art & Design, in cooperation with Wolfgang Ullrich, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, and Judith Welter, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst.

Thursday, 27.11.2014 (2–8 pm)

2–2.30 pm
Christoph Lang & Lucie Kolb: Welcome and introduction (Lucerne School of Art & Design)

2.30–3.30 pm
Beat Wyss: Auslegen durch Ausstellen: das Warentheater (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design)

3.30–4.30 pm
Pascal Gielen: Constituting Artistic Autonomy (University of Groningen)

4.30–5.30 pm
Presentation of the results from the seminar Art Handling by students from both Karlsruhe and Lucerne

Break

6–7 pm
Monika Dommann: Visible Handling: Ein historischer Blick auf Infrastrukturen (University of Zurich)

7–8 pm
Podium discussion: Professionalisierungstendenzen eines Jobs im Kunstfeld?
with Monika Schori (MMfG), Franziska Koch (ZHdK) und Christoph Lang (HSLU)

Friday, 28. November 2014 (10 am–2.30 pm)

10–11 am
Peter J. Schneemann: Kennzahlen: Das Handling als Leistungsausweis von Kunst und Institution (University of Berne)

11–12 am
Annina Zimmermann: Gelingen heisst verschwinden

Break

12.30–1.30 pm
Wolfgang Ullrich: “Art handling” zwischen Kunstinterpretation und Statussymbol (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design)

1.30–2.30 pm
Judith Welter: “Made by...”: Künstler als handelnde Autoritäten (Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich)

Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Limmatstrasse 270, CH-8005 Zürich
T +41 44 277 20 50
F +41 44 277 62 86
http://www.migrosmuseum.ch