Do bring your lunch and join us for the talk and discussion!  

Noémie Etienne (Professor for Cultural Heritage and Art History, University of Vienna) & Ruby Satele Asiata (University of Vienna): “What is Conservation, and for Whom is it Done?” 

The ERC-funded project “Global Conservation: Histories and Theories (GloCo)” explores the idea of situated conservation. GloCo approaches conservation as a set of cultural and technological practices that aim to preserve and enable access to art and (im)material culture. Noémie Etienne will present the general aim of the project. Ruby Satele Asiata will discuss what conservation and/or care of measina (treasures) in museums could look like from a fa'asāmoa (way of Samoa) lens. Her focus is on studying 'ie Sāmoa (fine mats) by tracing their journey into museums and examining their “life” post-acquisition. She aims to investigate an ecosystem of conservation or care methods that align with Sāmoan ontology, cosmology, and practices.

Forthcoming speakers:
17 April 2024: Paul Turnbull (University of Tasmania), "Haunting Simulacra: the ethical challenges of anthropological plaster casts of Indigenous peoples"

15 May 2024: Katarina Matiasek (Curator, Photoinstitut Bonartes), "Photographic Encounters in the Emma and Felix von Luschan Collection"

19 June 2024: Angelika Hudler (Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik, University of Vienna), title tba