Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page i Contemporary Theory of Conservation Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page ii Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page iii Contemporary Theory of Conservation Salvador Muñoz Viñas AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page iv Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX 2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803 First published 2005 Copyright ©2005, Elsevier Ltd. 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Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page v Contents Acknowledgements ix Preface xi 1 What is conservation? 1 A brief history of conservation 1 Issues in the definition of conservation 7 Too many tasks 7 Too many objects 8 Too many professionals 9 Conservators’ conservation 13 A note on the use of the terms 14 Preservation and restoration 15 Preservation 15 Restoration 16 Preservation and restoration act together 18 Preservation and restoration are different 19 Preventive and informational preservation 21 Preventive preservation 21 Informational preservation 23 2 The objects of conservation 27 What shall be conserved? 27 The Mustang paradox 27 The evolution of conservation objects 29 Problems of traditional categories 31 Art, archaeology and antiquities 31 Historic works 35 Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page vi vi Contents Riegl’s ‘monuments’ 36 Heritage 37 The nihilist turn 41 The communicative turn 43 What is a symbol? 45 Webs of meaning 46 Too many symbols 50 Refining the communicative turn 50 Symbolic strength as a criterion 50 Which meanings make up a conservation object? 51 Mechanisms of symbolization 55 Changing meanings 57 Two exceptions: Riegl’s ‘deliberate monuments’ and recent artworks 58 Ethno-historical evidence 59 Summing up 62 3 Truth, objectivity and scientific conservation 65 The pursuit of truth in classical theories of conservation 65 Aestheticist theories 67 Scientific conservation 69 An observation on the role of architects in conservation theory 71 What is ‘scientific conservation’? 74 The (missing) theoretical body of scientific conservation 78 The principles of scientific conservation 81 Material fetichism 82 Belief in scientific enquiry 87 The pragmatic argument 88 Summing up 89 4 The decline of truth and objectivity 91 The tautological argument: authenticity and truth in conservation objects 91 Legibility 99 Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page vii Contents vii The notion of damage under scrutiny 101 The argument of unsuitability: subjective and intangible needs in conservation 105 5 A brief excursion into the real world 115 Conservation and science 115 Lack of communication 117 The insufficiency of hard sciences 120 Complexity 120 An infinite variety of objects 125 A vindication of conservators’ technical knowledge 129 Lack of technological knowledge 141 Technoscience 144 6 From objects to subjects 147 Radical subjectivism 147 Re-examining the problem: inter-subjectivism 150 The expert’s zone: objectivism and authority 153 From the experts’ zone to the trading zone: the emergence of the subject 158 Affected people 158 The stakeholders 160 The trading zone 163 Clashes in meanings: inter- and intra-cultural issues in conservation 165 7 The reasons for conservation 171 Reasons for conservation 171 From the conservation of truths to the conservation of meanings 173 Expressive conservation 176 Functional and value-led conservation 177 8 Sustainable conservation 183 The criticism of reversibility 183 Minimum intervention 188 Prelims.qxd 3~9~04 9:33 Page viii viii Contents From minimum intervention to maximum benefit 191 The principle of sustainability 194 9 From theory to practice: a revolution of common sense 199 Discernible restoration 199 Adaptive ethics 202 The risks of negotiatory conservation 205 Evidential conservation 205 Genial conservation 206 Demagogic conservation 208 Exerting authority: the role of the experts in contemporary conservation 209 Conclusion: a revolution of common sense 212 Bibliographical references 215 Subject index 229 Proper names index 233 Author index 237