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Global Conservation: Histories and Theories

Project description

Revolutionising global conservation practices

Museums across Europe are under pressure to return artworks to their countries of origin. Meanwhile, questions about the ethical display of ethnographic collections are reaching a critical point. As the demands for transparency and fairness grow, there is a need for a comprehensive resource on the global legacy of conservation. Funded by the European Research Council, the GLOCO project offers fresh insights through a polyphonic dictionary and essential resources for academics and museum professionals. Spanning the 16th to the 21st century, it focuses on diverse objects like Mesoamerican featherwork, Asian ceramics and West African wooden sculptures. GLOCO introduces a framework that explores concepts like forms and fragments, surface and time, and visibility and vulnerability.

Objective

Today, museums in Europe and the USA are under heightened scrutiny in light of increasing requests for artworks to be returned to their country of origin and growing questions about the appropriate display of ethnographic collections. Conservation practices are changing to include multiple experts to choose the most appropriate methods to preserve material culture. However, while museums display artefacts from many origins and deal daily with complex conservation practices, there is no comprehensive monograph or array of vetted online resources about the legacies of conservation on a global scale.
Global Conservation: Histories and Theories (GloCo) will be the first academic research project studying the histories and theories of conservation of material culture at a global level from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. GloCo approaches conservation as a set of cultural and technological practices that aim to preserve and give access to art and material culture. GloCo develops an innovative framework centered around the study of a selection of objects Mesoamerican featherwork; Asian ceramic; and West African wooden sculpture and organized around key transversal concepts: forms and fragments; surface and time; and visibility and vulnerability.
The importance and innovative dimension of GloCo lies in its broad historical and geographical scope as well as in its contemporary relevance. GloCo considers histories, theories, and forms of conservation within and beyond the West to restore a plurality of perspectives. We will publish four books (PhDs and PI), three articles (PDs), host two workshops, and create an online polyphonic dictionary (PDs and PI) that presents a range of notions tied to various cultures of conservation. These new definitions will become an essential resourcefor academics, museum professionals, and beyond. Thus, GloCo will reshape the current understanding of conservation through a deep rethinking of its histories and theories.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Net EU contribution
€ 1 932 878,00
Address
UNIVERSITATSRING 1
1010 Wien
Austria
Region
Ostösterreich Wien Wien
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 932 878,00

Beneficiaries (1)