Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art

Rosenbach, Ulrike

Glauben Sie nicht, daß ich eine Amazone bin

Condition Report
Conservation Concept
The arrows
The colour photographs
The target photograph
The Videotape - Master or Copy?

Conservation Concept (2007)
creator(s) Cornelia Weyer (conservator/art historian)

Focus on the objective of restoration and subsequent re-installation was developed in two stages:

1. Analysis of individual elements, taking into account their
- connection to the "Don't think that I'm an Amazon" performance of 1975 (originality in the context of historicity),
- inherent material properties including characteristic ageing features (originality in the context of material authenticity),
- functionality (originality in the context of processual content),

2. Analysis of the installation as a whole according to the following criteria:
- Combined effect of the parts in the overall appearance then and now (aesthetics),
- "Readability" as a precondition for the viewer's access to the work (originality in the context of the here and now of sense perception,
- Museal utilisation (practicability of different mediational strategies in the exhibition context).

The artwork is understood as a "living" work with present-day relevance and must therefore be immediately accessible to the observer. As a work of the 1970's, it is at the same time a record of an age from which already a considerable historical distance has developed.

The ethical principle of conservation and preservation of original material will be consciously abandoned
- in the case of parts which in the present condition owing to inherent material deterioration are neither a readable record nor perform the function assigned to them, and
- in the case of parts the present-day appearance of which disturbs the overall aesthetic impression aimed at by the artist and hinders the observer's access to the artwork.

Accordingly, the badly deteriorated arrow vanes will be replaced with new ones of identical material. Large quantities of replacement pieces have been laid by for the future. The colour slides are being reproduced on contemporary photographic material after slide masters from installation stock. Because of changes in the material properties this can be effective only as an approximation to the original colour tones. The videowork will be shown unrestored and, where possible on an historical monitor.