unesco №152 Temporary exhibitions.

8/8/2019 unesco 152 Temporary exhibitions.

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Museum

No 152 (Vol XXXVIII, n 4, 1986)

Temporary exhibitions


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Museum is published by the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organi-zation in Paris. An international forum(quarterly) of information and reflection onmuseums of all kinds.No . 152, 1986

Front-coverphotoTHE UMANSTORY.Poster and cover of theexhibition's catalogue.

I l Editor: Marie Jose ThielEditorial Assistant: Christine WilkinsonDesign: Georges Servat, George DucretA D V I S O R Y B O A R DOm Prakash Agrawal, IndiaAzedine Bachaouch, TunisiaFernanda de Camargo e Almeida-Moro,Patric D. Cardon, Secretary-GeneralofGa1 de Guichen, ICCROMAlpha Oumar Konar, MaliJean-Pierre Mohen, FranceLuis Monreal, SpainSyeung-gil Paik, Republic of KoreaMichel Parent, ICOMOSPaul Perrot, United States of AmericaLise Skjdth, DenmarkVitali Souslov, Union of Soviet Socialist

BrazilICOM, ex-oficio

Republics@ Unesco 1986Smeets Offset (NBI) bv, 's-Hertogenboscha Printed in the Netherlands

Back-cover ph ot oAPOLLO ELVEDERE,atican Museum

Authors are responsible or the choice and thepresentation of the facts contained in their ar-ticles and for the opinions expressed therein,which are not necessarily those of Unesco anddo not commit the Organization.Published texts may be freely reproducedand translated (except llustrations and wherereproduction or translation rights are re-served), provided that mention is made of theauthor and source. Extracts may be quoted ifdue acknowledgement is given.

Editon/ correspondence:The Editor, Museum,Unesco, 7 place de Fontenoy,75700 Paris, FranceSubscriptions:Commercial Services Division,Office of theUnesco Press,Unesco, 7 place de Fontenoy,Paris, FranceEach issue: 43 F. Subscription ates (4 ,suesor corresponding double issues per year):138 F


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Empormy exhibitions

Editorial 194G O I N G O N S HO W

George S. GardnerHlne LassalleUlla K eding O lofssonStella Wes terlund Twen ty years of traveZZng exhibitions 206

Whats so speciaZ about the specidexhibition? 196BienniaZs und major internationaZexhibitions 20 1RiAsutstZZnngar:fiom traveGZng exhibitions to aninformation centre 205I LOOK ING BACK O N A TEMPORARYEXHIBITION

Th e Vutcan CoZZections: th e Pupacy un d Art 2 13alter Persegati~

EXHIBITIONS AND THEIR PRESENTATIONJames Porter The Human S toy 230Valery Petrov itchMarta Sierra-Delage and A new tem por ay exhibition room in th eAlfonso Calle-Garca NationaZ Mu seum of Ethnology in Madrd 24 1

Sazonov The One-picture GalZey 237

THE CONSERVATORS POINT OF VIEWDenis SerjeantR. H. Marijnissen May we keep the Breughel? 249

The protection ofpa inting s in Zounexhibitions 246WFFM CHRONICLEPhoto credits:

Frontispiece: Unesco/E. Hattori; 2-4: AmericanMuseum of Natural History; 7-8: Smithsonian In-stitute; 9-12: Deidi von S chaeven; 13-16: DominikWFFM The roZe of the private and the publ ic sector inmanaging th e natonaZ cuZturaZ heritage: t h eexumpZe o f Canada 2 5 3Labhart; 21-25,27-38: R iksutstllningar; 59-70 andback cover: Commonwealth Institute; 71-73:Leonida Shimanovicha; 74-79: National Museumof Ethnology, Madrid; 80-85: Royal Academy ofArts

ISSN 0027-3996 Museum (Unesco, Paris)Vol. XXXVIII, No. , 986


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w h en we speak of exhibitions, we tend to think in terms of the temporary ex-hibition of works from public or private collections. we are therefore dealingin the ephemeral or at the very least the temporary. Even when immortalworks are gathered together, they are presented by newspapers under theheading temporary exhibitionsand the very use of this adjective emphasizesthe fleeting quality of th e event.Seen from an historical and institutional point of view, exhibitions havedeveloped in two distinct phases: th e first from collections into m useum s, i.e.from the private into the public dom ain; the second from mu seum collectionsto exhibition, i.e. from the permanent to the temporary sphere.Without art or 0hjet.1dart there is of course no exhibition and the exhibitspresented have been selected eitheh because they are worthy of attention 08because they are in some way a part which is representative of a whole.Roland Ba rthes has written . . . there is no better comp arison for the imageryin the EncyPopCdie h an tha t ofthe great ehibiticpns which have been heldover th e last hundred years and for which at it s t ime, the concept of the en-cyclopedia was the forerun ner; i t is at one and the same time a n historical ac-count and a spectacle. These phrases migh t be used ~ ~ t a ~ i s~~a~~~ tone thing is certain: exhibitions are changing. They are becoming amedium in their own right an d a new means of communication. They bringpeople together and show the reality as opposed to the image of the object.Their visitors are both selected an d self-selectedFor many museumsi m exhibitionmay be seen as a way of attracting visitorswho previoudy eschewed museums, because they were intim idate d by or indif-ferent to the traditional permanent collections. A bait for the unwary.The record attendan ce figures for special exhibitions an d the continuing in-crease in the number of museum visitors over the recent past would seem toreflect the success ofthi s policy.Onemust not, however, overlook exhibitionswhich are essentially pedagog ical in natu re. Such e ~ h i b i t i o ~ ~ sre seen by someas an extended form OBeducation and by others as a substitute for inadequateeducation in a given field. Both parties would like to seepedagogy freed fromits institutional fetters in much th e sameway as in artistic circles there is a moveto set the exhibition free from its institutional setting- he museum.part, exhibitions are designed to encourage public participa-

ining their place in space and time, of understanding their smroundings andeven of influencing their environm ent, their lives, their towns and so on.The phenomenon of major international exh ibitions is here to stay. Thismust be accepted, just as we mu st accept tha t the consem ation problems theypose are ,fa special kind and cannot be resolved by pormal practices. Shouldwe therefore remove these works from the public eye in our extremefor conservation and adopt, with regard to exhibitions, Ambrose

POI thetion an d to this end they aim to provide visitors with th e possibility of exam-

on ofpainting, theart of protec ting flat surfaces from the w eather andg them to the critid.2 Should we not rather accept, in spite of th edangers of travel for a work of art, that exhibitions are a privileged way ofdisplaying a nationa l or international heritage or specialized informa tion, forit is clear that th e internation al exchangeof special exhibitions has contributedto increasing m utua l understanding among peoples and will continu e to do SO .

r

1The paintings in the rock-hewn sanctuary ofDambulla Vihara, ri Lanka, (eighteenthcentury) are among the works selected fo rprotection under the safeguarding campaignlaunched by Unesco. Save our CommonHeritage, travelling exhibition organized byUnesco.

1. R. Barthes, Le degr zro de lcnhire,2 . A. Bierce, CoLected Writhgs,New York,Paris, Le Seuil.GitadeI press, 1960.


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George S. GardnerGraduated from Cooper Union and Pratt Institutein New York. Chairman of the Department of Ex-hibition and Graphics at the American Museum ofNatural History since 1973. Before that, he spenttwelve years as a partner in an in depe nden t designoffice specializing in exhibitions and museumwork. Currently on the editorial board of Curator,the quarterly journal of the American Museum ofNatural History; adjunct professor in the MuseumStudies Program at New York University. Co-founder and first president of the N ational Associa-tion of Museum Exhibition.

TW Oquestions frequently arise in thedirectors offices, the board fQOmS mdthe design departments 0% he worldsleading museum s. The first, How did weget into this business of high-pressurescheduling of special exhibitions with allits attendant cost and energy invest-ment? The second, S hould we continuein this direction and are the rewardingaspects of this programm e worth it? Starting in the late 1960s, a muchgreater emphasis than before was placedon th e creation of special, emp orary ex-hibitions. Museums seemingly com petedwith each other to produ ce bigger, bolderexhibitions until the age of the block-buster arrived. Now there is much re-flection on the validity of this emphasison temporary shows, and the possibleneglect of the permanent halls andgalleries.An examinationof the reasons behin dthe growth o fthe popularity of th e huge,

temporary show would inc lude several in -terrelated, complex factors. This ex-amination should logically be based onthe museums that have med ium to largesize collections, because museums with-ou t collections of artefacts, specimen s QPu t w o r k ~ ave probably always been inthe business of creating temporary ex-hibitions, several a year, and most pro-bably composed of loans from o ther in-stitutions.Why then does a museu m divert largeamounts of manpower an d large sums ofmoney from the preservation and exhibi-tion of these collections? The AmericanMuseum of Natural History in New Yorkis a good case in po in t. In t he early 1970s,this institution realized tha t the o pen ingof a new permanent hall required an in-vestment of from 2 to 3 million dollarsand that such openings were occurringonly once every year or two, even 061 th emost optimistic schedule. Thomas B.

2CaptzmedMotion, a special exhibition atthe American Museum of Natural Historywhich featured many articulated horse andother mammal skeletons prepared byS. Harmsted Chubb. This is an example ofa great collection being broughr o ut ofstorage and put on exhibition.


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Wbuts so special about th e special exbibitiorz? 19 73Magnzficent Voyagers at the SmithsoniansNational Museum of Natural Historyshowing a part of the collections broughtback by the Wilkes Expedition, includingmanikin dressed in bark cloth.

4View of a special exhibition at theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New Yorkentitled Man andHone. It ran at the Metfo r nine months.

Nicholson, Director of the AmericanMuseum, decided that the museum ha dto stage more frequen t events to attractreturn visits from m embers and regularvisitors, and to attract new visitors. Arecurring theme seemed to be we have tolet our constituency know that there areexciting things going on in our institu-tion (Fig. 2 ) . The opening of a majorhall , wheth er it be Peoples of the Pacificor Minerals and Ge ms, was an occasionfor much publicity and excitementaround the museum. But Nicholson feltthe American Museum should let thepublic know that a great deal of activitygoes on at all times behind those greatstone walls, from research in thebiological sciences, to stre ngthen ing col-lections in anthropology, to the additionof new an d dynam ic audio-visual presen-tations as part of the exhibition pro-gramme (Fig. 5) .For these reasons, an intensive pro-gramm e has developed at the AmericanMuseum which adds up to three or fourmajor special exhibitions, plus six orseven small to medium size exhibitionsannually. T he major shows may originatein the museum or may come, on loan,from another institution (Fig. 6). Thesmaller exhibitions, lasting from one tothree months, may focus on an event ofcurrent interest, a recent acquisition byone of the scientific departments, or aresearch project being carried o ut by oneof the curators on th e m useum staff.When Craig Black left the CarnegieMuseum in Pittsburgh to take up the postof Director of the Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Natural History in 1982, hestarted a p rogram me of increased activityin th e area of temporary exhibitions. Oneproblem he faced was that the LosAngeles County Museum hadnt been

able to get members into the museum,because we d ont have a regular programof things that are going on here all thetim e. B lack took with him several recom-mendations for possible special exhibi-tions and has imp lemented many of theseideas, particularly in the area of dinosaurexhibits. A nother factor of which the LosAngeles County Museum realized theimportance was that increased atten-danc e for special shows brought i n a ddi -tional revenue for their profit centres,such as the gift shop, which help to sup -port the museum.Thom as Hoving,. former Director ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, provid-ed leadership for an increased num-ber of special exhibitions at th e museumin the late 1960s. These shows gave themuseum opportunities to focus on aspecific artist or sculptor or period ofpainting or sculpture. In an art museum ,the rationale for organizing special ex-hibitions stems partly from the fact thatfew art museum s have complete collec-tions (all th e works of a particular artist),and so loans have to be m ade from oth erinsti tutio ns or from private collectors topu t together a comprehensive groupingsignificant enough to make a majorexhibition. Jeffrey L. Daly, the Met-ropolitans Chief Design er, explains thattemporary exhibitions frequently en-courage donations of artworks to t he hostinstitution. A show is more likely to beorgan ized wh en a specific donor shows aninterest in don ating art to the permane ntcollection.Th e rationale b ehind these exhibitionsat the Metropolitan emerged in the1960s, when the administration perceiv-ed t hat something was lacking in th epublic imag e of the muse um . It was seento be too staid or conservative. Hoving

looked upon the special exhibition as ame thod of promoting new interest onthe p art of th e visiting public. T he role ofthe education department has increasedconsiderably, in parallel with thedevelopmen t of this programm e, and theeducation staff is expected to producelectures, films and symposia buil t arou ndthe themes of these special exhibitions(Figs. 3 , 4) .The Smithsonian Institutions Na-tional Museum of Natural Historyentered the special exhibition arenasomewhat later than the other majorAmerican m useums. In 1981, the EvansGallery, a large hall designed expresslyfor the staging of temporary exhibitionsopened to the public, when Secretary ofthe Sm ithsonian, Dillon Ripley, realizedthat a new developmenthad come aboutand we were not part of it. Many largeshows were bypassing Washingtonbecause, before 1981, suitable space wasnot available. The National Gallery, in-cidentally, will put on travelling exhibi-tions only wh en they can prem ier the m.This policy prohibits taking a show if ithas opened in another American in-stitution.In the words of Sheila Mutchler,Special Exhibits C o-ordinator at the Na -tional Museum of Natural History(NMNH), the programme at the EvansGallery has been extremely successful.Th e total num ber of visitors has increasedto over G million annually, a million morethan the pre-1981 totals. One of thereasons behind the beginning of th e pro-gramme at the NMNH is the idea thatvast collections not now on exhibit t o t hepublic can be shown. The NM NH triesto produce one show per year, primarilyfrom its own collections and then sendsthis exhibition (u nder the auspices of the


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19 8 George S. Gardiver

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Ex-hibition Service) to other locations. Thewith many artefacts and pieces ofmemorabilia from Charles Wilkes Ex-pedition to the Antarctic (1838-42)which formed th e basis for many of theSmithso nians collections (Figs. 7, 8).In a survey condu cted in 1985 at theUniversity ofId ah o at MQSCQW ,dalao, byMs Deena Bedgian, i t be cm e apparentthat the r e ~ ~ n sor which museumsorganize a temporary exhibition pro-g r a m are many and that they tend tofall into the public relations or publicper cep tioi area. The reasons listed by th erespondents for organizing emporary ex-hibitions include: encouragement ofreturn visits; incentive for membership;enhancement ofvisibility; an d, at th e topof the list, toshow that the m useum is anactive, changing, exciting place. Two in-fluences that rated high in the survey

1986 entry wa &agpzz~ccent VOyageTswere p ublic expec tation (checked by 7 5per cent of the respondents), an dvisibility checked by 73 per cent of therespondents). Presenting current issues;relating to a broader audience; providingan enjoyable learning environment;more extensive collaboration betweenmuseums; and broadening &e base ofthe museums public and financial su p-port mother reasons listed by the fifty-eigh t muse um representatives answeringthe survey questions.The survey provided som e interestingresults in the area of funding. About 77per cent of the respondents indicated anincrease in their d i b i t budge ts over thepast te n years with 7 - 10per cent of totalmuse um budg ets being alllocated to ex -hibits. O fth at total, 25 - 50 per cent wasa l h n t e d to temporary exhibitions.Netwo rking, that is collaboration withother m useum s, is an increasingly imp or-tant factor in the study of this phe-

nom enom . The relevance oftravelling ex-hibitions on the con temporary museumscene also hinges to a certain exten t uponan ncreasing interest in in terna tional CO -operation. At present, the AmericanMuseum ofNa tural History is working onplans for future exhibitions with m useumoficials in France, Canada, PeoplesRepublicof China, the Soviet Un ion a ndTunisia.R ob ert H o f h , D irector of the Na-tional Museum of Natural History inashington, B.C. , has stated that he isin favor of the concept of special exlaibi-tions , especially those of an internationalnatur e, those that encourage cultural ex -change . Scholarship has no bound aries.The term bkckbusters crept into th el e ~ i c ~ nfthe mu seum world at abou t thetime when Hoving organized the Trea-suresof Tutadhamupzexhibition, a showthat drew capacity audiences. Th e prese ntDirector, Philippe de Montebello,


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Whatlrso special abo ut t he special exhibition?5Special exhibition at the American Museumof Natural History entitled Ice Age Ar t,featured artefacts, photographs anddrawings of mans earliest creative efforts.

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6Bronze sculpture at the entrance to thetemporary exhibition at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History called Pompeii-A.D. 79 . Most of the first-century Romanobjects and artefacts were on loan frommuseums in Italy.

prefers to avoid the term blockbuster, aword the press popularized i n the 1970s,and to move away from th e concep t of themega-show toward the more human-scale exhibition with the u ltimat e aim oftrying to increase the num ber of discern-ing visitors versus casual tourists. Theshow, he feels, should be more respec-table and less frenzie d. Although 96 per cent of those in theBedgian survey stated that the specialexhibition has a definite future and ispart of a continuing and developingtrend, this type of exhibit has its detrac-

tors. Th e sam e survey showed that 8 pe rcent of those responding felt that tem-porary exhibitions were only of mo me n-tary interest. Joseph Veach Noble,former Director of the Museum of theCity of New Yo rk, said in Mztseztm News:This mercantile tren d of our cultural in-stitutions has been forced upon us, but itcertainly is not healthy. Aesthetic judg-ment now must take a back seat towhatever sells.The controversy over whether thistrend is a good thing is heard in the of-fices, board rooms a nd design studios. A

7View of Magnzj5cen.t Voyagers: The U.S.Exploring Expedition. 1838-1842, installedin Evans Gallery of the National Museum ofNatural History (Smithsonian Institution).

great deal of money and energy is beingdevoted to these shows and occasionallythe question of the undue influence ex-erted by showbiz interests can be heard.Michael Spock, Vice-president forPublic Program ming a t C hicagos FieldMuseum of Natu ral History, has taken aradical turn away from the special exhibi-tion ph ilosophy, for at least the next fiveyears. The Field M useum, in p reparationfor its Centenn ial in 1993, has decided toconcentrate on refurbishing old, existinggalleries featuring the objects in theFields vast collections. Th e ques tion wasasked, Are we now competing withourselves in getting funding for perma-nent halls? Monies spent on majorspecial exhibitions might be betterallocated to upgrading permanent halls.The aim in Chicago is to open a new,refurbished hall every year!Mike Spock has also chosen them es forpermanent halls that cut across the nor-mal lines of the scientific disciplines, tocreate interdisciplinary exhibitions. Ma-jor projects on the drawing boards callsfor a new Pacifichall in late 1988 and anew Africa hall in 1989.In conclusion, it has become qui te evi-den t tha t the special exhibition is here tostay, despite th e fears of the few that thistrend may divert the scholarly directionthat curators would like exhibitions totake.Co-operation amon g th e worlds greatmuseums allows the museum-goingpublic of many nations to see and ex-perience magnificent collections that

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20 0 George S.Gardner

8In&! a special exhibition staged at theMetropolitan Museum of Art fromSeptember 1985 to 5 January 1986.

they might never be able to see otherwise.At th e Am erican M useum , discussions arenow under way concerning two majorspecial exhibitions, one of artefacts fromAmerican and Canadian museums thatwill travel to cities in th e Soviet Un ion,and another that will exhibit specimensfrom collections in th e USSR i n Americanand C anadian cities. Th e Smithsonian isorganizing the loan agreements an d thiscross-pollination cannot help but be abeneficid influence on b oth scholars andthe general public of the co-operatingnations. As Robert Hoffm ann says, Tech-nology continues to affect the world moreand more and an interna tional exchange

of special exhibitions should certainlyhelp world understanding . Museums are interested in creatingbetter images of their institutions and inbuilding greater visibility in order to gainpublic understanding, support and in-volvement. Special exhibitions can be animp ortan t factor in achieving hese goals.Museum directors are now able to changethe image of a huge, static, monolithicinstitution where nothing much hap-pens, to a dynam ic place where t he visitorcan be attracted by a variety of exhibi-tions on a variety of subjects resultingfrom a strong, tempo rary exhibition pro-gramme. m


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Exhibitions as a formof entertainwentThe entertainment phenomenon is not anew on e, since exhibitions were a form ofentertainment from the eighteenth cen-tury onwards. The Salon du Louvre andLondons Royal Academy Ex hibition e n-joyed great public success with their firstshows, which were eagerly awaite d, co m-mented on an d given wide publicity inthe press. Exhibitions were regarded asentertainment, as fashionable displays ofcollections of objects, long before theybecame either group expressions, one-man shows, retrospectives, or scientificand historical presentations. Two cen-turies ago and even less, the artist work edfor the Salon, in the light of its re-quirements and its public. Here n othinghas changed. In the age of the media,major international exhibitions, wh etherbiennial or triennial, follow the sametradition. Certain conditions havehowever radically alter ed, since th e widercirculation of works of art must now betaken into account. It seems that any m a-jor event owes it to itself to be interna-tional as regards the works exhibited andthe public reached. Th e scale of diversityof an exhibition, the choice of them e tocapture attention, the size of the worksexhibited, the type of publicity cam-paign, controversial reviews and articlesin the press, both specialized an d for thegeneral public, a nd radio and televisioncoverage must all ensure the requiredshock effect.The issues invohedW hethe r or not th e organizers are awareof it, every event involves cultural,political and economic issues. On thecultural side, there is the fact that eachbiennial exhibition promo tes a particulartype of art. Its reputa tion is such tha t itsets the seal of fame on the exhibits, theselection made , an d th e grading of artistsinto stars and superstars. Its aesthetic con-tent may reflect its environment and besustained by the production of the cul-tural area in which it is located (KasselDocum enta, Venice Biennial, Paris Bien-nial (Figs. 9- 12)), or it may be totally

alien to it. Examples of the latter are SoPaulo, Medelln and New Delhi. Giventh e way in which exhibitions of this kin dare moun ted, their side effects and reper-cussions on local artistic creation are farfrom negligible: on the positive side,they may stimulate a new form oforiginality, on th e nega tive side they m ayproduc e only plagiarism an d loss of iden-tity. Political considerations come intoplay, for various authorities, includinggovernments and national an d interna-tional institutions and organizations, areinvolved. The prestige and success ofeven an entirely private event, providenations with a shop window in which tocompete with each other by mountingever more ambitious projects. Economicfactors are involved, thro ugh t he link-u pwith th e art marke t, the gallery networkand the choices and purchases ofmuseums, state collections and collec-tors. It is significant tha t t h e consultationon the Role of the Major Biennial Ex-hibitions an d International Events in theField of Contempo raryArt in the Promo-tion and Dissemination of Culturelorganized by Unesco and h eld in Venicein Jun e 1985, was atte nd ed n ot only bythe directors of all the biennials but alsoby organizers of international exhibitionfairs such as that of Basel (Figs. 13, 14 ,15, 16).The information-exhibition:risks and benefitsOn e objective at least-that of showingcontemporaryart of acknowledge dworthto the maximum num ber of visitors- scommon to both types of event, andsome of the repercussions are similar.Th e organizers of bo th b iennia l exhibi-tions and fairs say that the desire to in-form th e public is of primary importance;hence the eclecticism in which trends,schools and countries are mingled. Thisalso explains the recourse to commercialadvertising methods in order to attractnew types of public, the hithertoneglected or the indifferent, and the useof the most up-to-date techniques in thisfield. T he Medelln B iennial is particular-ly representative in this re spect, as are theorganization and m anagem ent of the So

Hlne LassalleCurator of National Museums, Directorate ofFrench Museums, Cultural Action Division, andSecretary-General of the International AssociationofArt Critics (AICA ).

1. Consultation on The Role of th e MajorBiennial Exhibitions and In ternational Events inthe Field of Contemporary Art in the Promotionand Dissemination of Culture, Venice, CiniFoundation, 24-26 June 1985, organized byUnesco, in co-operation with the Italian N ationalCommission for Unesco and the CiniFoundation. Papers were presented by RenBerger, Honorary President of A ICA, JacquesLeenhardt, President of the French section?f AICA an d professor at th e Ecole des HautesEtudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, MichaelGibson, art critic for the Herald Tnibzcne,Genevive Breerette, art critic for Le Monde, an dJos Augusto Frana, President of IAAC andDirector of the P ortuguese Cultural Institute(Gulbenkian Foundation), Paris. The final reporton the Consultation was drawn up by AndrParinaud, administrator of IAA exhibitionsco-operationwith Michael Gibson.The consultation was attended by theadministrators or organizers of the CairoInternational Biennial, the Budapest Biennial ofSmall Sculpture, the Basel Fair, the ParisNouvelle Biennial, the Venice Biennial, the N ewDelhi Biennial, the Medelln (Colombia)Biennial, the So Paulo Biennial, the KasselDocumenta, and the Sydney Biennial,representatives of international organizations suchas ICOM and the Council of Europe, andeminen t persons from the five cultural regions.This article takes up the topics covered indiscussion and introduced in th e various papers.The papers may be obtained from the Divisionof Cultural Development, Unesco, 1 rue Miollis,75015 Paris.


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20 2 H h e LassalLe

Paulo Bienn ial and th e publicity given toit. Another example is the revealingchange made a t the time of the last Parisiennial in 1985, when the advertisingwas entrusted to a commercial agency.Hugeness of scale, the intentionallyprovocative aspect of works in terms ofsize, colour, technique or them e, and th espectacular presentation of the stands(the labyrinthine fair, the attractive jum-ble or the sophisticated display) all con-tribute to producing an effect which is farremo ved from the specific relationship ofrecognition and appropriation bemeenthe work and the spectator peculiar to amuseum. The impression made on thevisitor to one of these gigantic citadels ofart is ofa gen era l nature. H e has difficultyin finding his beuings arad deciding howto m ake his way round th e exhibits. If heis not in the know, he will feel fms-trated and totally at a loss. The m ass im-position of a culture which has acqu iredlegitimacy may engend er in someone notbelonging to that culture a form ofculpability, hostility or, at the least, in-difference. While this danger, inherentin any cultural policy, is seldom spelledou t , dl organizers nevertheless stress th enee d for in form ation accessible to all and

widely distributed to all types of public.Orga nizers will employ any means to im -prove the ways in which they com-municate and they devote increasinglylarger budgets to them. Technology hasprogressed to the point of being able to


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Biennials and major intemational'exhibitions 203

9-12Nouvelle Bienizale de Paris 8S,The mainhall at La Villette ( 2 1 March- 2 1 May 1985).

reproduce a 'second-hand' iconographyin unlimited quantities and a greatvariety of forms. Bu t what is one to thin kab ou t access to art which can only be pro-vided through the med ia?And what kindof art is it which, in order to be perceived,mu st first be processed by th e me dia?Those excZudedfioom the ar t ?zetworksThe m any and varied means employed,whether direct, indirect, industrial orcommercial, all combine to put across amyth which is being generalized in oneform or anothe r: th at of Art with a capital'A ', and th e artist. Inclusion in this my this a prerequisite of being recognized an dthose who are outside the major interna -tional networks, which promote it, seekto be included. The question for them is,how to secure an introduction into th e in-forma tion networks and to attract the in-terest of organizers, adjudicating panelsand selection comm ittees who are tradi-tionally more receptive to Western art?How are these outsiders to be given achance to be see n? How can th e antithesisof centre and periphery, of dom inan t andmargina l art b e overcome? How are worksof art whose cultural standards differfrom the prevailing standards of art laiddown by international reviews, institu-tions, and the consensus of what areessentially Western art circles to berecognized, perceived or described?Those attend ing the Venice Consulta-

tion em phazised the importance of t hecirculation of works of art today in ord erto create an awareness of th e originality ofdifferent cultures and th e variety of wh atis produced in response to highly variedaesthetic criteria. "The need f o r concertedaternationalacto?~Attempts to bring together itemsrepresenting different cultures come u pagainst difficulties with customs for-malities, which are harm ful if they holdup works of art for days or weeks in un-suitable conditions. There are also therisks inherent in transport, unpackingan d storag e in premises where security isnot always as good as that provided by amu seu m. These are calculated risks whichhave to be taken nevertheless, if there isa genuine will to establish a direct rela-tionship between the work of art andthe public, and to stimulate publiccuriosity an d awareness. No pho togra ph,reproduction or video image can ever taketh e place of the original. The media serveas vectors for information, not first-h andknowledge. The curator, the dealer, theartist and the organizer of the event areall caught up in the same dilemma:preservation versus public display. Con-certed international action to improveconditions is therefore essential, as sug-gested in the ICOM study on the relationsbetween museums.z.The aim would be to

establish a network of biennial exhibi-tions e ntitle d to easier customs facilities,a particularly difficult undertaking ata time when it is increasingly vital tostreng then security measures.The press and the publicAfter production, dissemination and in-formation comes the last link in thechain, namely reception. This is at twolevels. There is the reception of the eventin the press and by the general public.The press participates beforehand in in-formation or dissemination, in the sameway as it subsequently conditions orreflects public reaction. The art criticpublishes reviews in th e press and servesas an intermediary between a potentialpublic and the artist, his work and theevent which presents that work in a pa r-ticular light, conferring on it a particularstatus in a particular perspective. Thisrole is admittedly declining, since, in itsconcern to increase readership, the presstends , for purely economic reasons, to e n-dorse fashionable choices and aestheticcanons which are further upheld by themarket and powerful patrons. Never-theless, what is said and written ab out a nexhibition sets a course for the futu re a nd

2. As a follow-up to the recommendationconcerning the international exchange of culturalproperty, adopted by the General Conference ofUnesco at its nineteen th session, Nairobi,OctoberlNovember 1976.


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204 Hlne Lassade

ART'I 7 8G. nternational Kunstmesse,Basel (1 2 - 17 June 1986).

induces changes of direction. In any case,what remains of an exhibition, onse itsgates have closed and its works have be endispersed anew , is its catalogue an d t hepress records: published reviews andcomment stand as documentation for th efuture. l?rom them it will be possible tojudge the development of trends in artover the years and the relative imp ortanceof art events in that development. T hehistory of twentieth-century art an d tasteis being w ritten from one biennial exhibi-tion to another.In this context, the problem ofdocumentation, including the recordingof the e phem eral, data banks and accessto them, becomes a key question. Therecommendationsmad e to Unesco by theparticipants at the close o f th e 1985 COD-sultation in Venice included the consti-tution of documentation on biennidexhibitions. There were also suggestionsfor the provision of information andawareness campaigns for new types ofpublic, with the establishment of educa-tional structures in co nnection with bien-nials an d major exhibitions.Any cu ltural activity nowadays sets ou tto reach new types of public. Th is appliesvery much to biennials, particularly thoserelying on spectacular and large-scale ef-tion to the num ber of visitors forecast.In fact, it is virtually impossible toidentify the new sectors of the publictapped by biennials and major interna-tional events in contemporary art. Thesevary with th e type ofevent, both depend -ing on whether it is a biennial or a fairand on whether it is concerned withsculpture, drawing, painting, video orthe visual arts in general. You ng pe opleseem more responsive than their elders toa type of art which they perceive as clearly

fects, which obtain funding in propor-

emanating from their familiar environ-me nt. Methods of approa ching these sec-tors of th e public are based very mu ch o ntrial and error, and few surveys h a w yetbeen conducted to determine how effec-tive they are.

A dynamic process is now beginning ontwo fronts: thar of providing artists whowere previously excluded from the m withaccess to the major international net-works, and tha t of opening up the way toculture for those who still feel it to bealien to their world. These were amongthe final recom mendations to Unesco atthe conclusion of the Venice Consulta-tion, which also included suggestions forprospe cting new types of public and re-evaluating the status and , role of the artcritic, together with practical proposalssuch as modifc ations to customs systems,the creation of educational structures andthe provision of grants for artists whohave not yet attained an internationalreputation, in particular young artistsfrom developing countries. All the 01-ganizers and officials presen t agree d tha tan inter-biennial publication should befounded as an instrument of dissemina-tion and information for the organizersthemselves, specialists, art lovers andthe p ress. Broad coverage would be givento a consideration of the phenomenonof biennials and major inrernationalexhibitions and the scope of the ir action.As a follow-up to the twenty recom-mendations made by all those par-

ticipating in th e Jun e 1985 Consultation,Unesco desided to finance a feasibilitystudy ofth e main projects proposed. T heco-ordination and impleme ntation of th estud y was en trusted to the Internationd&%ociationof Art Critics (PAAC), withthe collaboration of the InternationalAssociation of Art (IAA). Th e first objec-tive is a systematic survey of all biennialsand major international events: theirsubject, periodicity, scale, finan cing a nddissemination methods, heir public,publications, impact, and the like-which will provide a comp lete picture tobe used as a basis for subsequ ent research.It may be said tha t bien nid s and majorinternational exhibitions represent asocial phenome non of our t ime and thatdiscussion of them is centped on infor-mation and communication directedrowards cultural c~ ns um pt io n ratherthan the recognition of the value of art.The key words are manag ement a nd im-pact, the latter being a particular form ofprofitability. Biennials and m ajor inter -national events tend to b e regard ed as astatementOP review of what hasbeen pro-duced . They are also seen as status sym-bols which confers prestige o n their localeand gives publicity to their organizers,the town or state sponsoring them andthe artists exhibited. They neverthelessactively promote cultural inreraction inregard both to creation and to th e public .Th eir spread and their success reveal oneof the m ost striking social phe nom ena ofrecent years, comparable with thedevelop ment of museu ms. The y testify toa growing interest in c ulture at all levelsof political an d social organ ization.

[Transl'atedfrom French]


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n

RikszctststZZniztgtw:

f from trweZLng exhibitionsto un nformution centre Ulla Keding Olofsson

17The cartoonist Staffan Lindns view ofRiksteatern, Rikskonserter andRiksutstllningar (the Swedish NationalTouring Theatre, the Institute for NationalConcerts an d the Swedish TravellingExhibitions). They are the centralgovernment organizations for spreadingculture to the remote parts of a sparselypopulated country an d for involving newgroups in cultural activities.

Born in Stockholm in 1930. She has a Ph.D inComparative Literature and was a teacher for te nyears. With Riksutstllningar since 1967, first aspedagogical expert, later ashead of production andplanning, she has been director of administrationsince 1980. Member of ICOM s Executive C ouncil,1971-74, and 1977-83. President of Swedens Na-tional Committee fo r ICOM since 1986.

Can art influence public opinio n? Thatwa s the question behind o ne of Riksut-stllningars early e xperime nts. A grou pof young artists was commissioned toput together an exhibition illustratingSwedens relations with developingcountries. They created a series of en-vironments Beaut#& Moments, whichwere shown all over Sweden mainly inmuseums, from 1968 to 1970. The ex-hibition and its catalogue used an ag-gressive and outspoken languaze. Theystimulated discussions all over th e coun-try an d gave rise to political criticism fro mboth right and left. The circumstncessurroun ding this travelling exhibition aredescribed in M u s e z m , Vol. =III, No. 1,1970171: BeautzYuZ Mo me nt s: An ArtExhibition with a Shock Effect.Is the museum the right place for apolitical exhibition? Should an exhibi-tion financed out of public funds to bemade a vehicle for political opinions?These were two of the questions raised,and they were finally brou ght b efore theSwedish parliament, where they were

answered by the late Olof Palme, thenMinister of Education and Culture.Although himself portrayed in the ex-hibition catalogue as a satyr, he had no tintervened in any way. In defending th epolicy of showing this type of exhibitioneven in museums, he took the op portuni-t y to present an overall review of thegovern men ts cultural policy. H e e m-phasized that it is essential democraticpractice to suppo rt certain things whichone heartily dislikes.Beautz jU Momezts was Riksutstll-ningars first and best known contribu-tion to the dev elopment of th e travellingexhibition. It proved that an exhibitioncan have considerable influence, especi-ally when combined with printedcatalogues and s tudy material an d backedu p by activities, such as lectures, discus-sions, theatre perfo rmanc es, work-shops.In such a case, the exhibition o pens up adialogue with its public, involves thevisitor and encourages social contacts.Ano ther type of travelling exhibitionsset up by Riksutstllningar,was describe d

in MusezGm, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 , 1981.These were exhibitions for an d a bou t dif-ferent groups of handicapped people.Riksutstllningar started as a pilot pro -ject in 1965 and was established in 1976as a founda tion, financed by the govern-men t but with a great amoun t of freedom(Fig. 17). At the same time, an overallcultural policy for Sweden was for-mulated and agreed upo n by all politicalparties. This cultural policy should:Help protect freedom of expression andcreate genuine op portu nities to utilizethis freedom.Provide people with th e chance to carryou t their own creative activities an d en -courage contacts between p eople.Coun teract the negative effects of com-mercialism in the cultural sphere.Further a decentralization of activitiesand decision-making functions in thecultural sphere.Be designed with regard to the experi-ences and needs of disadvantagedgroups.Facilitate artistic and cultural inno vation .


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206 Ulla Keding OlofssonGuarantee that the cultural heritages ofearlier period s are preserved and keptalive.Further the exchange of experience an dideas in the cultural sphere overlinguistic and national boundaries.As on e of the instmments for this policy,hiiksutstllningar often worl


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Twenty years o f travelling exhibitions 207RecipientsOnce arranged, the exhibitions are senton tour for a year or more to the variousbodies and organizations which orderthem; each exhibition remaining for atleast a fortnight in any one place. Themain recipients during the 1984185budget year were: schools (45 per cent);libraries and cultural comm ittees (30 percent); adult education organizations ( 4per cent); museums and art galleries (6percent); and miscellaneous recipients,such as workplaces, hospitals, thepeoples halls and peoples amuse-ment parks affiliated to the labourmovement, etc. (1 5 per cent).SzcbjectsA breakdown of the subjects dealt withover a five-year period comes ou t roug hlyas follows: cultural historylsocial af-fairslinformation, 33 per cent; a rt/h an -dicrafts, 33 per cent; exhibitions design-ed primarily for schools, children andyoung people, 2 7 per cent; naturalscience/ technolog y/ he environ ment, 7per cent;TWOundred exhbtionson our each yearDuring the first twenty years of its ex-istence, Riksutstdlning ar has co-ordinat-ed nearly 2,000 different projects, no t allexhibitions, with new projects beingcompleted at a rate of about 50 a year. O fn -

these, 10 or so are taken over from othe rorganizations. At the same time , m any ofthe exhibitions put together d uring pre-vious years contin ue to circulate, makin ga total of some 200 exhibitions travellingthroughout Sweden in any one year.

All exhibitions are plann ed, research-ed, designed and put together at Riks-utstllningars headquarters in Stock-holm, where the technical facilitiesinclud e a large carpentry and metalw ork-ing sh op an d a black-and-white photo-graphic laboratory. There are abo ut sixtystaff, who work in close collaborationwith free-lance artists, designers, educa-tional experts and othe r specialists in th esubject with which th e exhibition will bedealing. Th e size of the exhibitions variesconsiderably, ranging from one squaremetre to as many as two hundred.At Riksutstllningar there is no suchthing as a standard exhibition for newforms an d materials are constantly beingtested and tried, including the use ofnew, lightweight structures and suchme dia as films and aud io-visual aids.Most exhibitions are sent on to ur un ac-companied, with transport being hand l-ed by rail or freight companies. Whenthey arrive at their destination, exhibi-tions are claimed, unpacked andmo unte d by the recipient and, once over,are repacked and sent to their nextdestination (Figs. 18- 20).C u s t o ~ z - a e s g n e a p a c ~ n gasesExhibitions are not only individuallydesigned; they are individually packed,in specially manu factured crates made tomeasure for each exhibition. All crateshave casters, handles, locks and collapsi-ble sides and are designed to take up themin imu m of space when stored. Interiorsare custom-bu ilt to protect the exhibitionmaterial. Each crate is assigned a titl e andmarked with its weight, number and

cubic measure; and each contains detail-ed packing instructions. Prototypes aredevelop ed a t Riksutstllningar,especiallyif this involves the use of unfamiliarmaterials and the final product is orderedfrom a specialist man ufacturer.W ell in advance of the da te for whichthey have ordered the exhibition, therecipients are sent a comprehensive in-troductory file con taining all the printedmatter needed for the exhibition-posters, catalogues, handouts, etc. Thefile also contains press material, mo un -ting instructions, suggestions about h ow

to organize lectures, film shows, d ebates ,local exhibitions, etc., and instructionson how to arrange transport to the nextvenue.On ly a few exhibitions-mostly art ex-hibitions or those with specially bu ilt en-vironments- re transported in Riks-utstllningars own vehicles, in whichcase technicians and other members ofth e stafftravel with th e exhibition to helpwith assembly. Every othe r year or so anexhibition is actually installed in one ofth e lorries, which is then sent o n a tou r ofth e provinces. Two examples of recent ex-hibitions of this type are Falling Employ-ment in the Swedirh Glass Industry andThe Life of Children at the Turn oftheCentury, which toured some of th enorth ern provinces.An important part of Riksutstdl-ningars work, n ot discussed in this articleas it does not usually result directly intravelling exhibitions, is assistance tostudy circles, clubs, trade u nion organiza-tions, environmental bodies and otherspecial interest groups. This assistancemay take the form of purely practicaltechnical advice, material aid or helpwith financing.

18-20Ho w to make a rotten exhibition. . .


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Stella Westerlund0sIn addition, a special consultancy ser-vice is being developed for museums, togive technical advice on the design andproduction of showcases, exhibition pro-totypes and th e development of perma-nent museum exhibitions. Phorographicenlargeme nts and mounting s can alreadybe ordered at cost from Riksutstll-ningars w orkshops.The secretariatof the Swedish MuseumAssociation is located at Riksutstll-ningar, as was for several years thesecretariat ofth e Swedish National ICOMCommittee.

A few examples of the exhibitions pro-duced by Riksutstllningar have beenchosen to give some idea oft he ir them es,scope, design and overall aims. They in-clude a small-sized art exhibition fo rhospitals, a series of study kits on ecologyfo r kindergartens, an exhibition p r ~ -viding an educational study kit fo r

2 1The Green Box series of study material onecology. Each of the seven boxes presents ananimal- ere the mole- llusrrating t 5life in it s natural environment.

22The exhibition W ho is Samafiom Ghana?recreated the home of a 9-year-old girl inGhana. Ir was supplemented by studykits.23In th e Footsteps of Fredrika, presenting rheSwedish author and champion of socialrights, Fredrika Bremer, and the SwedishWomens Liberauon Association, is shownby schools and libraries. A system of foldingscreens forms a pillar with a built-inshowcase displaying original objects.


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Twenty years of travelling exhibitionsschools, a sm all exhibition for libraries, UNICEF an d The Swedish Internationalan arts and crafts exhibition designed for Develop ment Authority (SIDA). TheAfrican art mu seu ms , an art show acting aim is to give Swedish children betweenas its own exhibition premises, and two the ages of 7 and 14 theopportunity oflarge-scale exhibitions, one on applied getting to know a child in a Third Worldart displayed in showcases, the other, re- country in the light of their own ex -quiring special environm ents, designed periences. Th e exhibition attem pts toto stimulate deb ate on the developm ent recreate the hom e of a 9 year-old girl inof technology. Ghana and to give an a ccount of her day-to-day life. All exhibits are everyday ar-Smaddis beautzj5uZ ticles, such as household utensils, toys,etc., and can be handled by the visitorsThe smallest travelling exhibitions re- (Fig. 22) .quire only a few squ are metr es of space. This exhibition also includes fou r kitsFor example, an exhibition at present intend ed for schools; the contents of thetravelling to ho spitals an d ma ternity kits are sufficiently flexible to enablewards is a series of graphic prints on them to be used in a classroom situationchildbearing and childbirth seen from a and include study guides and otherwomans po int of view. In th e form of a material for the teacher.large book on a stand, it is lit by Suggestionsforproducingeducationalspotlights and creates a space for private kits of this nature are presented in th econtem plation and study. booklet Kit- What is That? producedA furthe r examp le of small-scale pro- by Riksutstllningar and published byductions are th e Green Kits, which pro- the ICOM Educa tion Com mitteesvide study material on ecology for Work ing Party on Kits in 1973. The crea-kindergartens and schools (Fig. 21) . tion of the Ghana exhibition and theThere are seven kits in all, each in three work subsequ ently involved with bothcopies and dealing with familiar animals the exhibition and kit are described in thesuch as the hedg ehog , viper and field article W ho is Sama from Ghan a? pu -mouse-som e of which are on the verge blished in the No. 8, 1977178 issue ofof extinction. Each kit shows an animal ICOM Edzlcation.(stuffed) in its natura l environme nt anddescribes its daily life an d activities. Jud g- (1. F ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~fFredrxa 9ing by requests from schools, this is oneof our most successful produ cts. This exhibition of 35 square metres onFredrika Bremer, the Swedish author an dfihibition and stadJ&it n ~b~~~ cha mp ion of social rights, is typical of thesmall-sized exhibition suitable forW h o is Sam a fr om G hana? is th e title of schools an d libraries. O ne of Riksutstll-an exhibition and a series of study kits ningars own technicians designed aproduced in 1976 in collaboration with system of fold ing screens to form a pillar

209incorporating a built-in showcase dis-playing original objects (Fig. 23) .The first part of the exhibition dealswith Fredrika Bremers life (1801-64) ,her literary achievements, her travels toboth the New W orld (the United States)and the Old , her social comm itment andher fight for womens freedom andvalues. The second part deals with theSwedish Womens Liberation Associa-tion , which takes its name from h er, an dwith its aims, developme nts and aspira-tions. The exhibition was staged in 1984to coincide with the centenary of theAssociation. W henever the exhibition ison show in libraries, books by FredrikaBremer are displayed for loan and specialprogrammes are organized by the localwomens associations.An English version of the first part ofthe exhibition has b een commissioned bythe Swedish Institute. T his is currently ontour in the United Kingdom and theUnited States, where it will later be onpermanent display at the Museum ofSwedish History in Philadelphia.CreativeSwedenCreative Sweden is an exhibition illu-strating present trends in Swedish han-dicraft and design and embraceseverything from traditional arts and craftsto modern industrial design. One of it sambitions is to illustrate how new formsof handicraft and design can bedevelopedon th e basis of traditions. Pro-duced by Svensk Form (the SwedishSociety of Crafts and Design) in col-laboration w ith Riksutstllningar, the ex-hibition was put together for a tour ofSouthern Africa organized by theSwedish Institute, the first venue beingthe National Gallery at Harare inZimbabwe.The ex hibition was des igned to displaythe works freely without showcases-using an ingeniously simple system ofbeechwood stands and (for textiles)screens. Th e whole is designe d to fit intoa single small un it and packs dow n intocrates. Once crated, the artefacts makingu p th e exhibition are prptected by liningsof soft foam rub ber (Fig. 24 (a), (b ), (c),

,

(4 1 (e) , (QI-Faces of DroughtFaces of Drozlght is an exhibition ofphotographs taken in Ethiopia by the in-ternationally acclaime d, South African-born photographer Peter Magubane.From the photographs originally com-


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e

f

stt Westerhadmissioned by UNIC EF, fifty colour printswere selected to illustrate the situation offarmers and nomads who have been ~ Q K -ed by the drought to abandon theirparts of Ethiopia. The exhibition alsodepicts aid programmes run by the RedCross and the UNWCR to providerefugees with cattle to he lp th em tQstarta new life.As is the case with most of Riksutstll-ningar's exhibitions, it was arranged inco-operation with a number of Swedishorganizations: Afro-Art, The SwedishAfrica Groups, The Scandinavian Hn-stitute for A frican Studies, The Swedishsection of the VV~rldLutheran Piedera-tion, The Swedish Save &e ChildrenFund, The Swedish Red C ~ Q S S ,heSwedish UNICEP Committee, TheSwedish International DevelopmentA), which provided finan-cial backing, and Vi, the weeklymagazine of the Co-operative Move-ment, which first published PeterMagubme's photographs in Sweden.These organizations have all con-tributed to the catalogue with articles ontheir B d programmes in drought-strickenAfrica. Their local representatives havealso helped in the organizing of program-mes and subscriptions, all do ng the routeof the exhibition. It opened in January1985, at the House of Culture inSto&olm and is currently touringSwedish S C ~ O O ~ S ,ibraries and m useums.It is fully booked for dm ost four years.The Swedish section of the WorldLutheran Federation has commissionedit s ow n copy of th e exhibition, sending iton tour to its regional representatives allover Sweden.

homes and go on foo t t o Camp n VSiOUS

This is a somewhat unusual art exhibitionwhich is transported in Riksutstll-ningar's ow n vans and mounted by QUIown st&. Th e original idea was put for-ward by the Dda lecdia County Museum,

24 (a-f)Exhibition designer Bjrn Ed dismountingthe exhibition Creative Swed en, whichillustrates current Swedish trends inhandicraft and design, produced for touringin Southern Africa. Beechwood stands andscreens are designed to form a single unit,and the works of ceramics and glass packdown into crates lined with foam rubber.


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Twenty years of travelli7?~xhibitions 211which houses a collection of th e works ofJohan Ahlbck. Ahlbck himself wasemploy ed at the local rolling mill and formany years portrayed t he life a nd socialconditions of his fellow workers.The Coun ty Museum , which itself pro-duces a good num ber of travelling exhibi-tions for th e region, also did th e design.This takes th e form of a large room (50square metres) with an angled ceiling;the interior is dark, and spo tlights are us:ed to display the gouaches, drawings an dphotographs kept permanently mounte don the walls. A selection of Ahlbcksgraphic production is displayed on thewhitewashed exterior walls. The exhibi-tion also includes a 50-minute film onAhlbck and his life originally mad e forSwedish television.As this exhibition serves as it own ex-hibitio n premises, it also solves the prob -lem of finding a suitable venue. It hasalready visited over twenty differentplaces in Sweden and is put on show inpeoples halls in collaboration with theAssociation of Peoples Halls affiliated tothe Swedish Labour Movement.Form an d Tradition in Sweden At 200 square metres, this is one of th elargest exhibitions. Its theme is han-dicrafts and the applied arts in Swedenover the last hund red years, an d, presen-ting as it does an exhibition of ideas asthey charge over time, it is designed toplace present-day Swedish handicraftsand applied arts in an historical perspec-tive (Fig. 25).The exhibits are displayed in twentyshowcases and cover the period from the1880s to the present day. Each displaydepicts an epoch, with a colour schemetypical of the period. An empty showcaseis provided for local exhibitions. The con-cept and design of the exhibition are thework of Gu nilla Palm stierna-We iss, ascenographer famous for her collabora-tion with Ingmar Bergman in theatricalproductions. T he objects themselve s, on

2 5One of twenty showcases in Form andTradition in Sweden presenting the lasthundred years of Swedish handicrafts andapplied arts. For transport the objectsdisplayed in the upper part of the showcasepack down into the lower part, protected byspecially designed compartments.

loan from museums and private collec-tions, are displayed in th e upper parts ofthe showcases and pack down into thelower, which are pro vide d with speciallydesigned compartments lined with foamrubber. Each case is on casters, and theentire exhibition is transported inRiksuts tllningars own van.Mach ine Power Technokogya n d Woriing C o ~ d i t i o n sThe aim of this exhibition is to stimulatedebate on technological progress andchanging working conditions. Examplesare taken from the weaving industry. T heexhibition comprises seven specially bui ltenvironmental rooms, with a total sur-face area of 200 square metres, il-lustrating: the hand loom, 1800-50; the

advent of new technology towards theturn of the century; the weaving loom ,1870-99; the automatic loom o f , he1930s; the time and m otion loom of the1940s; the computer-controlled loom,1977- ; and the future. Three roomscontain model looms which the publiccan operate to see how the number ofwefts has increased from 14 per minute inthe early hand loom to 14,000 in todayscomputer-controlled machine and whatthis implies in terms of changed workingconditions for the individual worker (Fig.26).A n um ber of artists were em ployed tocreate the machine models and factoryenvironments (Fig. 27). There are in-troductory films, and guided tours roun dthe exhibitions. Foreign-language ver-sions of the tour have been recorded on


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212 SteLLa Westerhnd

tape fo r the benefit of foreign visitors toth e exhibition. Th e exhibition has visitedtwenty-five difiesent places in Swedenand has also been shown in Denmark,Finland and Nomay.screens @Badhowc@se$or .@leRiksutstllningar also offers a variety ofmaterials for those who wish to mounttheir own exhibitions. For exam ple, thereis a standardized system of screens ofwhite corm gated cardboard which are in -expensive and come complete with in-structions on use and ideas for display. Awooden showcase is also available with it sown metal stand and travelling crare. Aprototype has already been developed,and additions are being made all thetime. With its folding doors, drawers,electrical fittings and plexiglass front,this case is particularly suitable f5 rmuseums wishing to arrange tours of27Riksutstllningars workshop whese s ixexhibition technicians ou t of a total staff ofabout sixty people are working.

material from their own collections (Fig.28); and Riksutstllningar also uses it forsome twenty-odd exhibitions of its own,primarily intended for public premises,libraries, hospitals, etc. The showcasemakes it possible to display a specificW O &of art, an artistic technique, thework of a single artist 01 items selectedfrom museum collections.

Riksutstllningar publishes an annualcatalogue listing dl the travelling exhibi-tions on tour. It also puts ou t P gbng igtstiiningssvenge, hich appe ars in fourissues a year. A number of booklets havealso been published, such as How toNaLe a Rotten Exhibition, 1971, thirdrevised edition 1978; Kit- What isThat?, 1973, also available in French,German, Spanish and Russian, publish-ed by the ICOM Wo rking Party on Kits;

28For museums wanting to make their ownsmall travelling exhibitions with objectsfrom their collections, Riksutstllningaroffers this wooden showcase with foldingdoors, drawers and electrical fittings. Thereis also a collapsible crate for transports.

26Sketch of the exhibitionNachine Powerand its seven specially built rooms,illustrating the technological progress andchanging working conditions with theweaving industry as example, from thehand-loom of the early nineteenth centuryto the computer-controlled loom of the1970s and the future. (Drawing by BrittaKleen).

and Going toExhibitions, econd editio n1980, written and edited by Ulla Arnell,Inger Hammer and GSran NylQf.There are also books on the exhibitionas a medium for experience and know-ledge, e.g. Utstdiningssflrk (Exhibi-tion Lang uage), written by GiiranCarlsson and Per-Uno Agren, which dealswith exhibitions at museums, and Ut-stZ&ingsboken (TheExhibition Book),written by Harriet Clayhills, which givesexamples of the renewal of the exhibitionas a medium and describes exhibitionsput together by amateur groups, artistsand people wishing to formulate an ideaof their own, with the aim of corn-mun icating their experience a specificmessage.

Since 1968 Riksutstllningar has beenhold ing regular public semin ars and dis-cussions on a wide variety of topics, rang-ing from cultural policy an d artistic train -in g to exhibition methodology andtechniques. In 1982, a series of threeseminars was arranged in collaborationwith a number of Stockholm art mu-seums on the theme Att Visa Monst(How to Show Art). In 1984 2nd 1985, aseries of seminars dealt with How to Ex-hib it Archaeology and How to Ex hibitNa ture. Gues t speakers are also invitedfrom abroad. In the spring of 1983 BernieZubrawski of the Boston ChildrensMuseum was asked to lead a seminar onchildren and physics and introduce hismethod of blowing bubbles to a Swedishaudience ofchildrn , studen ts, scientists,teachers and m useum staff. As a result, aBubble Exhibition is now on tour inSweden.


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L O O K I N G B A C K O N AT EM PO R A RY E X H I B I T I O N

The L+iitcurzCollectiom: The Pupucy amiArtW alter PersegatiBorn in 1920 in Verona. Degree in economics andbusiness. Studies in sociology, public relations an dlanguages. Assistant Permanent Observer for theHoly See to the Food and Agriculture Organizationfrom 1958 to 1969. In 1970-71, O fic e Manager,Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace,Vatican City. Secretary General and Treasurer of th eVatican Museum s and A rt G alleries, Vatican Citysince 1971. Frequent travels in Europe and theUnited States in connection with activities ofCatholic organizations. Publications: newspaperand periodical articles on museum management,security, personnel and statistics on Catholic youthorganizations and on migration.

The fact that the Vatican Museums allow-ed 237 works of art leave the tiny City-State for a temporary exhibitionthousands of miles away, for a period ofabou t fourteen months in 198318 4, s ex-traordinary; an event that would havebeen inconceivable just a few yearsearlier.After the Piet was sent to New York in1965, not a single piece of art left theVatican Museums or any other Vaticaninstitution for more than a decade.Pope John XXIII is said to have openedthe windows of the Church on to th eworld. It migh t be said that Pope P aul VI .opened the windows of the VaticanMuseums in recognizing tha t a museumis not a living one without a contem-porary art section. Pope Joh n Paul II no tonly kept all the windows open but healso ope ned some of our doors, allowingthe first imp ortan t Vatican exhibition toleave our tiny state and land in theUn ited States for showing in New York ,Chicago and San Francisco.It was our first experience of this kin d.W e felt a trem endou s responsibility andwe wanted everything to be done toperfection. W e did not want and couldno t take chances. Our requirem ents withth e organizers of the exhibition were ex-ceptionally strict and n ot one me mb er ofour technical and curatorial staff wasallowed to sleep on unsolved problem s oroverlooked possibilities.The ordeal started in late 1979 andende d in March 1984 and what happ enedduring that period is the subject of thischronicle which is written not to give anexample of how things should be don e,bu t to pu t on record the determ ination,the ability, the imagination, theresourcefulness, the faith and the good

fortu ne of hundreds of people who work-ed exceptionally hard for four years tomake T h e Vatican Coections: ThePapacy an dA rt a safe and w orthy pur suitof a dr eam , a most enjoyable spiritual ex-perience.From the f irst contacts tothe signing of the agreementAt the end of 1979, the idea of moun tinga mo des t archaeological exhibition of o b-jects from th e Vatican Museums in s mallcities in the United States was put for-ward. A simple message: art is a docu-me nt of man's striving to be, in th e im-age of God, a creator; a collection of artspanning centuries is an extremelyprecious documen t of the history and lifeof the h um an race; Popes collected thesedocuments and the Vatican Museumshave bee n preserving and caring for the msince 1503.Small cities where big exhibitions arerare were to have been chosen. It becameimmediately apparent, however, that: (a)the effort to organize such an exhibitionan d the risks involved would no t b e lessthan those of producing a larger, evenmore significant one; (b) even in smallcities a small exhibition cannot be suc-cessful without important works of art;(c) if the Vatican Museums wanted tosend a message, such a message ha d to bestrong and clear.Our choice, therefore, was betweenholding an important exhibition or noexhibition at all and for this reason, inFebruary 1980, after some preparatorywork we began discussions of a possibleexhibition with the Director of theMetropolitan Museum of Art in NewYork . W e considered this one of the best


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2 14 Walte r Persegati

1. The key points of the protocol were:Provisional title of the exhibition;The maximum number of venues of theThe approximate dates of departure from theA very tentative list of works of art;Basic secu rity, safety and conservation pro cedurerequired by th e lender and accepted by theborrower;The financial contribution to be paid to thelender to cover the expenses for preventiveconservation works on the art objects inpreparation for the exhibition and organizingthe loan;Basic requirements regarding packing andshipping, an d the choice of the agentseffecting them;

Vatican curators and technicians at allmovements of the works and of a VaticanMuseums representative at all time;Compensation of such personnel andreimbursement to the Vatican for the salary ofexhibition in and outside the Vatican;produced by the borrower, the authors of th etexts and the control of the lende r over suchtexts;reproductions of the works of ar t on thepremises of the borrowing museums;Royalties;Insurance provisions, legal protection and

exhibition (three);Vatican and return of the works of art;

Provisions regarding couriers and the presence of

'such persons during their involvement in theAgreement ab out the basic publications to be

Provisions for producing and selling

approximate date for the signing of the finalcontract;Acceptability of sponsor; by the Vatican.2 . In addition to the points covered by th edraft protocol, the final agreement included thefollowingName of the two participating museums agreedupon and terms of the agreement betweenthem and the Metropolitan Museum;Details regarding the insurance coverage;Details about packing; overseas and domesticDetails about security arrangements;Schedule of payments to the Vatican Museums;Th e force majelcre clause;Schedule of arrivals and departures;Final list of the exhibition items and listing ofClauses about indemnity and immunity fromTravel and per-diem expenses;Details about publications, reproductions and

transportation;

the insurance values;seizure;adaptations; photography, texts, captions;Provisions for audio-tours:Details about television rights;Schedule for payment of royalties by the three

Arrangements for opening events;Provisions for arbitration;Procedure for appointing the Vatican Museumsrepresentative at the exhibition;Provisions that the works of art could not berestored, disassembled, altered in any waywithout the specific authorization by theVatican Museums.

museums;

~ ~ ~ ~

museological organizations in the world,well equipped, both technically andcuratorially, to handle difficult loans.After the first contacts, both partiesquickly started to assess each othe r, m ak-ing wish lists on one side, and erectingprotecrive fences on t he o ther. The list ofworks was to include the mpst beautifuland imp ortan t pieces that safety, conser-vation, security, technical means,available funds an d organizational abilitywould allow with minimal risks, notmuch bigger than those a work of ar t issubjected to in its norm al place ofexhi bi-tion. All these elemen ts had therefore tobe analyzed by bo th parties before pu t-ting commitments on paper. All largepanel paintings and particularly delicatesculptures and oth er pieces were excludedon principle.Both the M etropolitan Museum of Artand the Vatican Museums did theirhomework, and discussions at the firstand basic meeting of the top manage-men t of both pasties at the Vatican inJuly, 1980 were lively. A draft protocolwas signed at the meeting' a nd after thesigning, th e Director of the M etropolitanMuseum was able to draw up an agree-ment with the two museums par-ticipating: the Chicago Art Inst itute an dthe San Francisco Museum of Pine Arts.In the meantime, the MetropolitanMuseum Vice-President for Fin ance andthe Vice-President for Publicationsdiscussed with the Vatican Museums alldetails concerning the production andsale of publications and reproductions,,percentages, conditions of sales and allother financial commitments.For practical purposes and for strictercontrol over the implementation of allclauses of the agreement, the M etropoli-tan Museum of Art was made the soleparty responsible for transportation, safe-t y and security of the loan from th e timethe W O ~ ~ Seft their original place of ex-hibition or deposit to the time of theirreturn. The museums ofchi cago a nd anFrancisco would in turn, make agree-ments with the Metropolitan Museumabo ut their share of responsibility.Immediately after signing the draftprotocol, the Vatican M useums proceed-ed to assess the insurance value of eachpiece on the wish list. How? The princi-ple seemed to be simple: the amount ofmoney that would be needed to acquireano ther work of art of equal importance.Th is however, is meaningless. How couldwe find another Apollo Belvedere oranother Leonardo? The ten dency is to purthe value incredibly high. CPCten, private

owners take great pride In the fact thatborrowing museum insure their works forvery large sums. There seems to be noceiling and insurance fees consequentlymak e exhibitions more and m ore expen-sive. We did the assessment in perfect ac-cord with the borrowing Museum , on th ebasis of what some key works could besold for at auction. The evaluation of theothe r pieces was done pro portio natelf .At the same time, the VaticanMuseums secured from Po peJo hn Paul IIthe needed authorization to make theloan, not an easy decision, consideringthe importanceof the works of ar t and theabsence of any precedent.During the summer and au tumn,drafts of the final agreement went backan d forth between New YO & and theVatican City and finally, after much workby lawyers and managers, the agreem entwas signed on 8 November 198Q.2

Imm ediately after the signing of the pro-tocol our conservation laboratoriesstarted working on the works of art:sculptures, tapestries, ancient textiles,paintings, bronzes, ceramics.The work carried ou t was no t d one foraesthetic reasons only. In addition tocleaning, it included strenghtening theworks of at to reduce th e stress of travel,and sometimes restoration.All stone statues passed through theconservation laboratory either to becleaned by immersion or showerbath, orto be X-rayed for hidden cracks ordam age, or for restoration when n eede d.As a precaution, casts to b e exh ibited i nplace of the originals were made of thetwenty-one most important sculptures.The first work to undergo restorationwas the Apollo Belvedere. This wasnecessary because, as a result of previousinterventions, the statue had lost itsbalance an d was leaning forward. It h adto be steadied by an iron rod f e d in thewall of the niche. Wide cracks were alsoevident in all previously restored areas.This was d ue to the swelling of rusty ironrods with which the various parts of thestatue were held in place. The heavilyrusted iron brace joining the right leg t othe lateral support, in the form of a tree

m n k , presented particular problems.Th e restoration done by four people too k~ W Q onths (see box 1).Five frescoes underwent complexrestoration. Th eMasic Add ing Ange l s byMelozzo da Forli were still attache d to the


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The Vatican Col'Lections:The Pabucv a n dAr t . 215heavy mortar to which they had been fix-ed . They were taken from t he Basilica ofthe Holy Apostles in Rome, duringrestructuring in 1711. They could nottravel in those conditions and weretherefore transferred to new supports an drestored. (See box 2. )Most of the Greek and Etruscan vases,often badly restored in the past, weredisassembled and reassembled usingreversible glues. T he lacunae were refill-ed using neutral colours in accordancewith t he m odern concepts of restoration.Bronzes were cleaned using new eq uip-ment acquired for the occasion. Thecleaning of some pieces brought to lig htremarkable discoveries. For example, anEtruscan bronze disk with the mask ofAcheloos revealed eyes of unsuspectedbeauty. (See box 3 . )The tapestries underwent carefulcleaning. For safety reasons and for bett erresults, particularly for the huge tapestryTh e Miraculous Draugh t of Fishes, aftera carto on by Rapha el, our laboratory wasequipped with a new stainless steel tuband w ith a hoisting and drying rig. Aftercleaning, which brought out the splen-dour of t he colours and th e brilliance ofthe silver threads, the damaged partswere restored with great patience andcare. A new backing was sewn on and astrip of Velcro was ap plied horizon tally atthe top to equalize the stress on thetapestry when hu ng for exhibition.Th e black layer of paint that ha d be enapplied to the Bernini and Algardi ter-racotta models in the past was cleane d offto reveal their hidde n beauty and a retu rnto the warm feeling of 'just finished' bythe artist.Silver and gold vessels and candelabrawere cleaned, protected and strengthen-ed. Vestments were relined, restored,cleaned an d b rought back to their originalbreathtaking splendour. Eleven paintingson canvas were restored and many wererelined. Some of the results were par-ticularly exciting. Five small panel p ain t-ings underwent treatment. They werechecked for any anomalyon the colour sur-face. All treatme nts an d corrections wereexecuted to secure stability of conditio nsand to impro ve readability. The conserva-tion condition of the su pport was checke d.When necessary, the cradle was repairedor replaced with a new , custom designedone, either in wood or in stainless steel,or both; self lubricating layers of Teflonwere used .The panel paintings, which are mostsensitive to relative humidity changespresented a very complex problem. The

panels which had been kept in thePinacoteca for more than fifty years werein so und condition, d espite the lack of airconditioning and we recorded the climaticconditions during the period February1981-January 1982. Due to thethickness of the walls the building buf-fered temp erature changesvery well. Pro-tectionfrom RHchangewhich, during heperiod of on e year had extremes of 45 percen t an d 65 per cent was less effective. Thechan ges, however, were slow. The yearlyaverage was 57 per cent. In order to ad aptour requirem ents to averages more easilyand constantly secured in the threeAmerican museums, we stipulated thattheRH in side the sealed show cases shouldbe between 50 per cent and 55 per centknowing that in those conditions ourpane l paintings d id not suffer. In fact, formost of the year in the Pinacoteca theminimum was 45/48 per cent and themaximum 55/65 per cent.At the time of packing, the RH in thePinacoteca wa s 62 per cent and th e panelswere therefore brough t to exhibition con-dition by being introduced with thepacking material (wood, padd ing, shockabsorbant an d buffering material- ilicagel) into acclimatization chamberswhere, gradually, the RH was broughtfrom 62 per cent to 54 per cent. T his tookbetween two and three weeks and thepanel paintings were then ready forpacking.The following new pieces of equip-ment were secured and installed in ourconservation laboratory:A fumigation chamber.An environmental chamber for creatingdifferent climatic conditions.An air abrasive uni t to remove accretionsfrom bronzes and terracottas.An ultrasonic tank for cleaning mineral

incrustations.Soft X-ray machine for the paintings anda hard X-ray one for small sculpturesand bronzes.An atomic absorption spectrophotometerfor analyses of th e min eral conten t ofcolour specks.A precision cutter ISOMET for exposinga flat surface or specks of colour im-bedd ed i n resin cubes, and a polisherfor same.An infrared camera with monitor fordeep observation of the surface ofpaintings.A micro-processor for analyses of gases;Special equipment for ultraviolet, in-frared and sodium vapour photo-graphs.X-ray diffraction appa ratus to analyse in -organic crystalline matte r.

Preparatory activities a t the VaticanMuseums and at the receivingmuseumsO th er . activities took place very early inpreparation for the exhibition. Th e, en-tries for the catalogue were prepared.This is one of th e most exiting and rewar-ding aspects of a temporary exhibition:there are research, studies, an d exchangesof knowledge that would never have beenattem pted without th e pressure of an im-portant catalogue to prepare for a .deadline. Unfortunately, circumstancsprevented us from including in thecatalogue a short chapteron the conserva-tion activities that the preparation of t heloan had required and which are the sub-ject here. Such a chapter would havemade the public aware of a very impor-tant aspect of any exhibition that is notgenerally know n.In the meantime, the MetropolitanMuseum was preparing the publicationof the catalogue and the books il-lustrating th e exhibition and the VaticanMuseums. T he entries and every word tobe printed were checked by the VaticanMuseums.Even the typesetting, the compositionof th e catalogue cover, th e propo rtionatesize of the different lines, the acknow-ledgem ent of the sponsors, the text an dthe conten t of the posters, the quan tity,subjects and captions of the postcards,th e publicity, the press releases all had tobe discussed and approved . The Logo ofthe E xhibition had to be studied, approv-ed, and its use regulated.New colour transparencies were madeof all the objects by the same photo-grapher whenever possible, in order tosecure uniform results. Hundreds ofblack an d white photograph s were pri nt-ed as working documents, for conditionreports, as packing reference, etc. Person-nel was trained for different tasks:couriers security guards, conservators,loading dock operators, riggers, m useumrepresentatives during the exhibition (seebox 4). Training included conservationand packing procedures, rules for compil-ing condition reports, using a commonglossary and a common rule forevaluating different conditions. Planeschedules, connections, transport to andfrom t he a irport, security in transit an d inairports were studied in co-operationwith the Metropolitan Museum.The Metropolitan Museum and themuseums in Chicago and San Franciscoalso started their preparation early andthese included the design of the

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Part of theaction moving equipmentat the Chicago Art29ready forInstitute.

exhibition (done by t he same architect inNew York and Chicago and by a differentone in San Francisco). Th e lay out was pro-posed to the Vatican Museum s, discussedan d approved . As for the design of th esealed showcases, th e same on es would beused in all three museums. They indu d-ed provisions for insertion of silica gelpellets as we shall see later. The ressmc-turing of the galleries designated for t heexhibition included in some museumsthe installation of a new air conditioningsystem and /ornew lighting, and even thebuilding ofa new staircase. Also includ edwere the training of new guards for theexhibition galleries; the installation of anew alarm system, both for volumetriccontrol and for the individual cases aradobjects; the training of docents; thepreparation of texts for the electroniccassette-guides; the preparation ofaudiovisuals; the progrmming of seriesof lectures on the exhibition topics; rheplanning transport schedules in co-ordination with Pan Am and th e VaticanMuseums and the pmidpating mu-seums, from Rome to New York, toChicago, to San Francisco and back to th eVatican; the planning of transport from&e ahports to the Museums and back tothe airports. This meant co-ordinationan d security provisions. Dry runs had tobe made at the approximate time of ar-rival and departure, in co -operation withthe airport and local police.

The right kind of trucks had to besecured. The docking area was checkedand in some cases modified, to accom-mo date t he large pallets (Figs. 29, 30 , 3 1,3 2 ) . A crew of riggers familiarized itselfwith the particulars of each work of art.

The same crew would o pera te in dl threemuseu ms to assure th e best professionalhandling of the crates. The selling of en -trance tickets was planned in all threemuseums. To avoid long queues andovercrowding it was decided not to selltickets on the premises, but through m ailOP telephone reservations. A limit of 700entrances per hour was also deter min ed,taking into account enjoyment by thepublic, security and conserva tion re-quirements. The television coverage wasstudied, discussed and decdded Upon.The opening events were plannedcarefully, together with d l activities andspecial group visits that are part of anyimportant exhibition. The shop areaswere selected- the main requir em entshad been established by contract- ndthe sales persons were trained. Educa-tional material for the schools ' wasprepared. American curators involved i nthe exhibition travelled t~ &e Vaticanmany times to become acquain ted withthe works of art an d co-operare with theVatican Museums in deciding the way inwhich to handle each piece.The conservation preparation at thethree museums was particularly thor-

On 29 April 1982, the exhibition wasannounced to the media at a pressconference-in the new Synod Hall,Vatican City. The conference was a tten d-ed by the directors of the three museums,representatives of the groups of voluteerswho would organize the opening eventsin the three American cities, curators,sponsors, technicians and friends.Por reasons of security, all de tails con -cern ing the pre paration activities (lists of

ough.


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The Vatican Collections: The Papacy andArt 217objects, conservation procedures, move-ments of the works inside the m useums,and others) were kept from the public.This prevented scholars and techniciansfrom knowing about th e extrem e care be-ing taken to secure safety an d conversa-tion. Thus, some misunderstandingsarose and great concern was voiced bysome critics at a time close to th e exhibi-tion opening.

31At the M.H. de Young Memorial Museumin San Francisco, props and material areprepared to receive the art works. Woodenboxes used as temporary supports in thevarious phases of lifting or lowering heavystatues.

30An electrically operated hydraulic platformlift, used for raising and lowering heavysculptures. Hydraulic lifts secure gentlemovements.

32At the Chicago Art Institute dockingplatform, the rollers are set in front of thepallets lying on the truck floor. Woodensupports of different thickness wereprepared to match the height of the truckbed according to the weight of the differentpallets on each flight.

Condition reports a nd cratingof the works of artAt this point, I w ant to emphasize theimportance of choosing the right packerand shipping agent. The choice of thepacking firm (Montenovi) and of theshipping agent (Tartaglia) was made onthe basis of previous experience. It wasnot an easy choice because museumcurators and conservators do not alwayshave the experience needed to dictateand control the pac king procedures, or atleast, not to the point of directing everymovement. Thus the team had to beknown and trusted. C hoosing the team isindeed a most imp ortant decision: oncechosen, neither packer nor shipp er can bechanged without severe risks. The mov-ing and packing is a very delicate job. C-ordination, calm, knowledge, confidenceand trust among all involved is required.Technical know-how is certainly impor-tant, but not the only yardstick.The planning of packing and shippingwas examined in every detail. Varioustypes of crates were studied in co -operation with the packer, the conser-vator and the curator. The distance thecrates would have to travel, th e means oftransport and the need to be opened,closed and re-opened again man y timeswere take n into consideration. Each stagewas considered and ha ndl ed accordingly.House security, procedures had to bestudied an d ap plied, not only in choosingthe place of packing and in control overpersonnel nvolved in th e operations, butalso in the exterior appearance of thecrates. The necessary equipment wassecured. W e need ed safety above all. It iscommon knowledge that even the bestpiece of equip me nt may fail. Every pieceof equipment was therefore chosen, in-spected and tried with great care.The paper work had to be planned . Itis evident that when enormous respon-sibilities are involved, every thing shouldbe on paper. Every movement of eachwork of art from it s original place of ex-hibition or deposit to the laboratory, tothe packing, to the temporary storeroom,


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to the airport, and vice versa, had to besigned and counter-signed.The crates, were made f

unesco №152 Temporary exhibitions.

Documents

Transcript of unesco №152 Temporary exhibitions.