History
The history of the Inside Installations project leads back to a symposium held in Amsterdam in 1997 titled Modern Art: Who Cares?. Modern and contemporary art conservators and curators from all over the world attended. One of the main results of the congress was the agreement to share knowledge and experience amongst conservation professionals, and to collaborate in collecting new information by means of artists’ interviews. A book was published in 1999, under the same name.

Between 1999 and 2002 a group of 23 individuals from 11 European organisations established the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art / INCCA. During this collaboration, the INCCA website and Database for Artists’ Archives were developed. Almost 100 artists’ interviews were conducted and from this experience a Guide to Good Practice for Artist interviews was created.

Since 2002 the INCCA network has continued to grow, the database has been renewed to ensure easier access and content delivery. Currently, there are over130 INCCA members from 24 countries and 84 organisations. INCCA relies on the contributions of its members and is facilitated by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage / ICN.

The success of the INCCA approach to collaborative research, especially as achieved during the INCCA founding project was an important motivation for members to again work together on a research project. The complex issues surrounding the preservation and presentation of installation art were considered to be key for the conservation of contemporary art.