Enfilade

From the conference programme:

Matters of Knowledge:

Paradigms and Practices of Conservation through the Centuries

Université de Neuchâtel, June 5–6 June 2025

Preservation and conservation, along with collecting and valuation, are pillars of any institution that holds a collection of cultural heritage. However, conservation is rarely the subject of analytical and reflexive discourse, researched in a historical perspective. Studies in museology, the history of collections, and even the history of science and technology, have offered their perspectives on why and how all kinds of material collections are preserved in institutions dedicated to conservation. Further, the professionals of these institutions are faced with their own questions about the state of their collections and the origins of the practices they execute in their daily work.

As part of the SNSF project Libraries and Museums in Switzerland (https://www.biblios-musees.ch/), a two-day conference will be held on June 5th and 6th, 2025, focusing on all these dimensions of the conservation of important collections since their founding. This event will bring together academic, scientific and professional circles, while providing an opportunity for theoretical reflection and case studies.

More information and abstracts of the papers can be found here»

t h u r s d a y ,  5  j u n e

9.45  Welcome and Introduction

10.00  Documentation and Exhibition of Museum Work
Moderator: Séverine Cattin
• Isabelle Le Pape — Exposer les coulisses du musée: Dévoilements et mises en abyme
• Julie Hochenedel — Transforming the Museum into Heritage: Photographs of Exhibition Spaces in the Louvre Museum

11.30  Coffee Break

12.00  Keynote Lecture
Moderator: Valérie Kobi
• Lauren R. Cannady — Paper Gardens: Cataloguing Change in Early Modern Botanical Thinking

13.00  Lunch Break

15.00  Practices of Conservation in a Global Perspective
Moderator: Natania Girardin
• Marie-Charlotte Lamy — The Race for the Mounted Specimen: The Art of Taxidermy in the Museum Context of the 19th Century
• Karolyna de Paula Koppke — Two Conservator-Restorers in 19th-Century Americas: Carlos Luiz Do Nascimento (1812–1876) and Vicente Huitrado (?–1890)

17.00  Exhibition Visit
Nommer les Natures: Histoire naturelle et héritage colonial at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Neuchâtel, Rue des Terreaux 14

f r i d a y ,  6  j u n e

9.15  Genius loci and Classifications
Moderator: Remo Stämpfli
• Alexandre Claude — Unchanging Materials? Preserving Stones in Early Modern European Collections
• Felicity Myrone and Ce Stevenson — Library or Print Room? New Insights into the Collecting and Care of Graphic Materials at the British Museum
• Federica Mancini — Des paradigmes et des pratiques à faire évoluer : Le cas du fonds graphique Picot-Brocard conservé au musée du Louvre

12:00  Lunch Break

13.45  Nationalism, Transculturation, and Identity Politics
Moderator: Chonja Lee
• Yuka Kadoi — From Shrine to Museum: Demonumentalising Persian Architectural Heritage
• Charlotte Rottier — The Making of a ‘Musée Belge’ Abroad? Private and State Art Collections on Display in Diplomatic Interiors, 1900–1940

15.15  Closing Remarks