Perhaps the philosophical distinction [between museums of contemporary art and the historical museum, ed] can be defined as one that we draw between experience and memory, one that has been drawn by Walter Benjamin in his essay on Proust from 1929 (the founding year of the Musem of Modern Art): "An experienced event is finite - at any rate, confined to one sphere of experience; a remembered event is infinite, because it is merely a key to everyhing that happened before it and after it."
Weiss, 2005, p. 47 - 48
[B]ecause of the performance aspect of many installations, conservators working with this medium will need to look beyond the material and consider that the 'heart' of a work might lie primarily in its less tangible qualities. Preserving for the future something that is above all an experience might require conservators to take a more fluid view of what may or may not be changed about a work, challenging conventional notions of accuracy and authenticity.
Real, 2001, p. 226
What the institution should aim to do [...] is present the work in a way that provides the viewer with an experience that is as close as possible to that provided by the work as sanctioned by the artist; and where these experiences diverge, audience members should be made aware of this and provided, where possible, with the information required to imaginatively reconstruct the experience of the work as sanctioned by the artist.[For example, by means of a wall text, video presentation, etc., ed.]
Irvin, 2006, p. 152
In this new kind of art, the integrity of and focus on an individual work are abandoned in favour of a multiplicity of objects, images and experiences, which spew forth without regard for isolation. The exalted status of art is undercut by the quotidian-type experience - with its sights, smells, and generally ephemeral character - that is central to installation.
Rosenthal, 2003, p. 25
To ensure that artworks will be accurately installed in the future, conservators must consider elements of an installation that affect the viewer's experience. These might require documenting the space, the acoustics, the balance of the different channels of sound, the light levels, and the way viewers enter and leave the installation. These elements are just as important to the conservation of the work as the more tangible or material elements.
Laurenson, 2001, p. 260
