Materialitetens tolkningspremisser i bevarandet av en samtida konstvärld : Konceptuell dynamik i relation till förgängligheten

In this thesis, work has been carried out in order to explore the role of materiality in works of conceptual art – and what possible influence the preservation of such objects might have for their meaning within the context of a modern art museum. The study is divided into three parts, where the initial one examines the concept of materiality, the second part maps the history and complexity of conservation, and the final part is based on three case studies of individual artworks. The research is carried out through a literature study within the fields of conservation and art history, as well as different kinds of institutionally produced reports along with exhibition descriptions and art reviews. Interviews have also been carried out with a curator and conservators from two museums of contemporary art, Moderna museet in Stockholm and Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-westfalen in Düsseldorff. One aspect of the study has been to, from a perspective of discourse theory, investigate whether any so-called antagonistic relationships could be identified within the practices of the art museum, between different professional attitudes towards the idea of preserving artworks where the materiality may or may not be of relevance for the conceptual integrity of the piece. No such antagonism has been observed, but rather a situation where the professional boundaries are blurred in relation to the individual object. In the theoretical forms of a communicative network, conservators, curators and the artist responsible for the piece engage in the custodial presentation of the artwork. In this work, traditional notions of preservation may give way to a process-oriented relationship with the object to enable a continuous relevance toward the public and as an active part of the contemporary art scene. Even if the context of the art museum establishes the physical limits of the conceptual art composition, the preservation of the artwork may be viewed as pragmatic in terms of its materiality – wh