Heritage conservation is a political matter that needs to be understood historically and theoretically based on a long-term and broad geographical scope. What were the ways of caring before conservation became a science in the 20th century? What were the guidance and criteria to follow? And what were the practices beyond Europe and the United States?

While the 20th century marked a period of expansion in the field of art conservation, the action of caring for cultural objects is much older. Indeed, conservation methods, commonly performed by artists or craftspeople, have been self-taught based on empirical evidence and passed on to generations since the 18th century. That century saw the rise of specialist restorers and marked the beginning of an aesthetic debate about the effects of time on cultural objects. Innovations to artists’ supplies and growing collaborations between the fields of art and science in the 19th century introduced new challenges to the conservation field. The progressive integration of science and innovative instrumental methods into the conservation field initiated a Scientific Turn to the domain over the 20th century strengthening knowledge about the materiality of artifacts. While the globalization of the art markets opened international dialogues, a (more recent) Green Turn is taken in conservation towards eco- sustainability. With a slow return to natural materials respectful of the environment, the artifacts, and the practitioners, this new direction echoes ancient techniques and practices. Finally, a Postcolonial Turn is also at stake today, while ethnographic museums are currently exploring the connections between conservation and coloniality.

Early restoration practices and methods are considered the founding principles of the field in terms of maintaining and ensuring proper environmental conditions for the display of artifacts. Proof of those early methods, mostly driven by craft savoir-faire and studio recipes, are recorded in archival documentation, even though they are scarce and fragmentary. Moreover, objects and their materials carry proof of this additional history, restoration, and conservation. This multidimensional archive reflects the variety of methods and ways of caring applied under circumstances, to give answers to pressure from interests and objectives from different stakeholders and brings new evidence to the understanding of the art world organization and network including the art market.

In a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary scope, this panel aims to discuss the early history of conservation techniques and alternate ways of caring for artifacts before the 20th century on the five continents to shed light on understudied traditions.

Talks :

"Traces et transformations"

• Eléonore KISSEL - Le musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac à l’intersection des pratiques de conservation matérielle
• Harrison IDOWU - African Artefacts and Early Indigenous Conservation Practices: The Case of the Benin Artefacts
• Jia PENG - Réparation aux agrafes de la céramique en Chine : De la pratique utilitaire à l’expression esthétique
• Stephanie BELL - Airing Out the Treasures: Conservation in Early Modern Japanese Buddhist Temples
• Lilian ALVES GOMES - Blurring Inscriptions in Stone: colonial wound sutures in dialogue with Brazilian monuments