The loss of artistic and cultural heritage is intrinsic to the development of history. In Brazil, for example, in the past five decades, seven major fires have affected institutions and private collections in the country. In Europe, catastrophes such as the fire of the Real Alcázar, in Madrid (1734), or the Glaspalast, in Munich (1931), are just two of many cases. We know that keeping an object out of the effects of time is not something simple or natural so, if the storm of progress continues to accumulate ruins (Benjamin), it is also up to us to think about what to do with them.
In this paper, we seek to open a discussion about the possibility of wholly destroyed works of art surviving in other mediums and returning to inhabit the rooms of a museum. However, if there are cases in which it is possible to materialize such works by rendering them as close to what they originally were[1], here we want to emphasize those pieces whose re-exhibition process takes place through a new materiality of their image. Taking three expositions in different countries as a starting point, we will mainly discuss the use of photography as a re/presentation medium. In all three cases, we believe that the critical use of photographical images - sometimes blurred or in black and white - goes beyond the sense of absence, document, or memory that is usually attributed to them, they ALSO act as a presentification of an artwork. In this context, key concepts such as aura, transmediation, and translation will be addressed.
As a theoretical basis, we adopt the idea of a nomadic image, capable of living in a work of art, but not necessarily coinciding with it, being able to migrate to other media (Belting). We understand that, even though this image may be a survival trace of the artwork, this does not guarantee its reinsertion in the canonical space of museums. To deal with this issue, contemporary exhibitions have carried out a process that could be thought of as transmediation, or a translation. Through it, the images presented are evoked in a critical way via another medium. Finally, we would like to relate this translation process with the possibility of a migration of the aura (Latour & Lowe) and its capacity for transformation in terms of what Didi-Huberman calls a memory trace.
The analyzed exhibitions are: 1) Tiempo de Mirar (2018), held in Montevideo (UY), in which the constructive paintings of Torres Garcia that burned in the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro were presented; 2) Tiepolo in Milan: The lost frescoes of Palacio Archinto (2019), held in NY; 3) The Lost Museum: Berlin sculpture & paintings collections 70 years after World War II (2015), held in Berlin.
[1] As was the case with the lost works of Hélio Oiticica, which burned in 2009, in Brazil, and were able to be remade based on the artist’s notes.
Keywords: Destruction; aura; translation; medium; image; exhibition.
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HELENA WILHELM EILERS
(Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1987)
Ph.D. student and doctoral fellow at Universidad Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina. Currently developing a study about destroyed artworks and materiality, involving institutions in Brazil and Uruguay. Main interests: art theory, image theory, materiality, non-conventional exhibitions, and the dialogue between art and archive.
https://conicet-ar.academia.edu/HelenaWilhelmEilers
http://lattes.cnpq.br/4295278197500212
CURRENTLY
- Ph.D. student, History and Comparative Theory of the Arts (2022 - ongoing), Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
- Doctoral fellow at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
- Researcher at MATERIA - Centro de Investigación en Arte, Materia y Cultura (IAAC-UNTREF), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Member of Programa de Investigación sobre Prácticas Estéticas Contemporáneas-PIPEC (Research Program on Contemporary Aesthetic Practices).
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Ph.D. Student, Art History and Criticism (2021 - unfinished/transferred to Buenos Aires)
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Master, Art History and Criticism (2017-2019)
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Graduate Course, Cultural Journalism (2014-2016)
Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil.
Bachelor, Social Communication (2006-2012)
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
LAST PUBLISHED PAPER AND CONFERENCES
Cuerpo y fragmentación en los rastros de obras destruidas de Torres García / Body and fragmentation in the traces of destroyed works by Torres García, 2022.
IV Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Teoría e Historia de las Artes. Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte (CAIA).
Entre a aura, o rastro e o fogo: Notas sobre o conceito de aura a partir das peças do Museu Nacional / Between aura, traces and fire: Notes on the concept of aura by studying the pieces of the National Museum, 2022.
Revista Porto Arte. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
A imagem de um museu em chamas/ The image of a museum on fire, 2021
41º Colóquio do Comitê Brasileiro de História da Arte – “Arte em tempos sombrios".
Torres García e a metafísica da pré-história indoamericana/ Torres García and the metaphysics of Indo-American prehistory, 2022.
Revista Valise. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do sul, Brazil.
“Tiempo de Mirar”: imagem, corpo e exposição/ “Tiempo de Mirar” (Time to look): Image, body, exhibition, 2021.
VI Encontro de Pesquisas em História da Arte (EPHA), da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp).
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Executive editor, Revista Arte & Ensaio, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 2021.
Editorial team member, Revista Arte & Ensaio, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 2017.
EVENTS ORGANIZED:
Currently: 150th anniversary of Joaquín Torres García (2024), international conference, coordinator.
The face-to-face and online academic events will be held in Buenos Aires and Brazil. It involves different institutions, such as UNTREF, the Torres García Museum (UY) and the National Museum of Fine Arts (AR). Supervised by the thesis director, Professor Gabriela Siracusano.
Previous conferences and meetings organized:
América Latina: arte e combate / Latin America: art and combat (2021, online conference), mediator.
Inferno e cultura: memória, fogo e cinzas da modernidade / Hell and culture: Memory, fire and ashes of modernity (2021, online conference). Guest.
Quebraquina (2021, organizing committee)
Arte e memória em tempos de crise / Art and memory in times of crisis (2019, organizing committee)
Corpos e territórios: arte em disputa / Bodies and territories: art in dispute (2018, organizing committee)
Throughout the history of art, various artistic and cultural objects have been lost for diverse reasons, such as fires, wars, or deterioration. To deal with the absence of these destroyed pieces, contemporary exhibitions have been exploring different approaches to re-think and re-materialize them. Using three cases as a starting point – from Berlin, Montevideo, and New York -– this paper will focus mainly on the dialectical use of photography. Among the issues surrounding the topic, we are particularly interested in the juxtaposition between absence, presence, aura, archive, and translation.