Five years ago, the German artist Karin Sander nailed a long row of vegetables inside the Helga de Alvear gallery in Madrid. They were not sculptures representing leeks, cabbages or aubergines, but real leeks, cabbages and aubergines, and their natural decomposition process could be seen live. In fact, a couple of weeks after it was inaugurated, the vegetables were already looking very un-lush, and from many of them a small trail of organic matter slid down the wall. Sander updated the baroque theme in a way as beautiful as it was radical and many visitors hid their bewilderment by asking quietly: "Can this really be bought and hung at home?"
Naturally, it could be bought and also hung anywhere, including a house.
As Alberto Gallardo, gallery director explains: "The artist's indications were quite flexible and simply left the option of replacing the pieces to the collector once their deterioration began."
This is not always the case.
For example, María Jerez's
La mancha
exhibition
, which can be seen right now at Twin Gallery (also in Madrid), includes several sculptures made with bread, but in this case buyers are not expected to locate bars and loaves of the same type and I will replace them.
The author proposes to reproduce the bread in other less perishable material in pursuit of a long life and free from the threat of corruption.
Leeks, cabbages or real aubergines.
Its natural decomposition process could be seen live in the exhibition, courtesy of Helga de Alvear.
It is assumed without discussion that, when an old painting deteriorates, it must be restored, and that for this it must go through a long and delicate process guided by experts.
But we are much less prepared to react to the variety of possibilities and formats that contemporary art offers.
When
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
(
the corpse of a shark that the British Damien Hirst put in a formaldehyde tank and that was sold for 12 million dollars) showed signs of putrefaction, many skeptics found the definitive occasion to describe the author as a chant and a great fraud to the author piece, when in reality the solution to have it at full capacity was as simple as changing the shark: nothing of its validity was lost with this replacement, as nothing was lost from
The Annunciation
by Fra Angelico when new gold sheets were applied on the wings of the archangel.
The
Young British Artists
- a group of artists that emerged in the 1990s at the hands of the Saatchi gallery and to which Hirst belongs - have been particularly prone to presenting challenges in this regard, starting with the unmade bed surrounded by Tracey's residues. Emin
(My Bed)
.
But in this career it may be difficult to surpass the self-portraits of Marc Quinn, made with his own frozen blood, which in theory require periodic extractions for their fine-tuning.
In the Reina Sofía museum they also know something about perishable or difficult to replace materials.
The chocolate glove from
A tray of objects
of Dalí or the wax and plaster busts of Medardo Rosso are some of his most committed works for this reason. Jorge García, head of museum restoration, explains that the emergency plan for the museum's collections defines four different scenarios, from day-to-day incidents or level 0 to level 3, where regional resources would have to be used. or national and has never had to be activated. Instead, a well-known case was the disappearance of a 38-ton sculpture signed by Richard Serra belonging to the museum's collection, which had to be reproduced with the artist's cooperation: “Indeed, once a friendly agreement was reached, the process of production was taken directly by Serra in the workshop that he chose, and the museum assumed the costs ”.If the original part were to appear at any point, one of the two should be destroyed to ensure its uniqueness.
The installation 'My Bed' (1998), by Tracey Emin, is an unmade bed surrounded by waste.
In another area,
Seven Magic Mountains
Ugo Rondinone's monumental stone installation in the desert in Las Vegas, has just undergone its second restoration since 2016, as exposure to wind and sunlight dims the brilliance of its iconic colors. "What you have to understand is that everything ages, and art too," says Miqui Guillén, partner of the artistic production company MadFABER. “Contemporary art is asked to do experimental and creative things, but at the same time to give a guarantee for eternity, because the collector sees it as an investment forever. Whereas with a car, for example, that does not happen: it is assumed that it lasts a while and that's it ”. MadFABER is dedicated to materializing all kinds of artist projects, no matter how complex they may seem, and also carries out the corresponding restorations when requested.
"Ideally, when the time comes, whoever does the repair is the same company that produced the part, since it has the necessary knowledge," he clarifies. “It is also better if the artist is alive, so that he can be consulted. But there are always options. Once they called me from the British gallery Lisson because in a work by Juan Muñoz a mirror had been broken and no one knew what type it was, whether it was a standard or not. As Muñoz had already died, an old collaborator in his study was located and asked ”.
As for who normally assumes the cost of this repair, Alberto Gallardo distinguishes between different situations: “It all depends on the nature of the damage. If it comes from an incorrect production, both the gallery and the artist respond. But when the damage is caused by poor preventive conservation of the works, it is the collector who must be in charge. Also if it is necessary to replace the perishable elements that are part of the work ”.
Therefore, it is best to take out insurance. "If the collector is adequately insured, problems are avoided", explains José Castañal, director of the Parisian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac. “But you have to bear in mind that when you conclude an acquisition process, you start another one of conservation. Collectors often say that they are not the mere owners of the artwork but its custodians, and that is very true. Collecting implies a moral responsibility with the work ”. His gallery, one of the most prestigious in Europe, represents great international names, including the legacy of Joseph Beuys, known for his pieces made with sensitive materials such as wax or grease.
There are few private art collections in this country as heterogeneous and audacious as that of Fernando Meana (who died in 2020) and Mariví Larrucea, which includes a papier-mâché and plaster sculpture by Rosemarie Trockel and another one filled with saffron by Ernesto Neto, among others. delicate pieces. Perhaps that is why they have always invested great efforts to keep it in good condition. "When a work has to be restored, it is done, but we carry out a very important conservation work so that it is not damaged," says Estefanía Meana, daughter of the collectors. A
condition report
is available for all the works in the family collection.
(report that includes its state of conservation and possible damage), photos included, which is updated before each loan.
In addition, a trusted professional is in charge of reviewing and, where appropriate, repairing the works (using the artist's own advice when possible), as well as determining the necessary conditions for their possible transfer.
“If they are not fulfilled, the work does not travel”, Meana concludes.
Dalí's 'Tray of Objects', 1936. A cardboard template, a woman's shoe, a plaster cast of a foot, some chocolate gloves wrapped in silver foil, an explicit erotic figurine, a box of matches and other items .
Photographic archive Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The case of Estefanía Meana presents an additional peculiarity, since in addition to managing her parents' collection, she has another one specializing in video art in her name. Here his main concern is the possible obsolescence of the format, so he has made sure to be legally covered against this risk: “I always ask that the gallery owner, and especially the artist, sign a contract with me that commits them to transform the video to the current format at all times. I bought my first pieces on a DVD, then they went to blue ray and now everything is converted to mp4 and delivered on a USB device. Although, in my opinion, the artist should have his works in a cloud, which I would access with my username and password, so that if a museum asked me for the work on loan I would download it adapted to whatever format it is ”.
He also cites the neon sculptures of the
minimal
artist
Dan Flavin: these lamps are no longer manufactured industrially, but the artist's legacy is responsible for producing them so that they can serve as a replacement: “Although they charge very expensive, of course. Perhaps that is the future of restoration, that the typical
sparks
that used to come to fix your TV now dedicate themselves to repairing the television monitors that are in works of art around the world. If the Altamira bison have been conserved, then the Nam June Paik TVs will be conserved, for example ”.
A work of art is ultimately an object (when it is), but also something else, a field of forces where certain aspirations and expectations converge. In a sense it is not very different from a religious fetish, and as such we endow it with an aura, to use the term of the philosopher Walter Benjamin. When a malfunction occurs, its pure materiality is exposed, and therefore that aura vanishes. This, according to Miqui Guillén, almost always implies disaffection: "When a collector has a conservation problem with a piece, it becomes a problem and he no longer wants to know anything about it, because nobody wants problems."
But you don't have to dramatize, or so José Castañal believes: “I always say that you will have more conservation problems than the work you buy, which will outlive you in 99% of the cases.
As Hippocrates said
Ars longa vita brevis
[
e
l art is long, life short]. "
'Seven Magic Mountains', a monumental stone installation by Ugo Rondinone in the desert in Las Vegas.