What motivates Mareike Möller? RESTAURO met the paper restorer. A portrait
What motivates Mareike Möller? Restauro spoke to the paper restorer. A portrait
Paper conservator Mareike Möller is naturally moved by the current discussion about the renovation of the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg. Her position on the structural changes to the museum is very clear: “For me, a museum is always on the move and is allowed to change. This also applies to the building, which must adapt to current circumstances.”
In order to set up a modern and, for the first time, barrier-free museum in the house built in 1876, a lot has to be changed, demolished and rebuilt. As usual, this does not please friends of the traditional. From the young paper conservator’s point of view, however, the accessibility that is now being sought is very important, because “it would be neither contemporary nor fair to exclude groups of people,” says Mareike Möller.
Focus on digitizing the graphic arts collection
The conservator has been working on this accessibility for several months. She has been employed for two years to prepare the digitization of the graphic arts collection. To do this, she came to Altenburg in Thuringia to work at the Lindenau Museum with its famous collection of old Italian panel painting, which was previously unknown to her. But when she arrived in Altenburg, the museum was already closed. She got to know the collection through the catalog, in the interim exhibition and exclusively in the depot. The usual initial uncertainties are not a major problem for Mareike Möller in Altenburg: “I was overwhelmed by the mass of objects at the beginning. But the restorers, who have been at the museum for a long time, showed me a lot and explained a lot,” she says.
Mareike Möller works part-time as a freelance paper conservator
Even though Mareike Möller likes to do her own restoration work and doesn’t want to give it up – she won’t be doing it at the Lindenau Museum for the time being, because: “The graphic collection is in good condition. You can see that it has always been looked after by restorers for decades,” says Mareike Möller. She will only know how much needs to be restored once all the preparations for digitization have been completed. Her studies at the Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HAWK) have not only prepared her perfectly for her work as a conservator. Mareike Möller also enjoys taking on management tasks and working on the plans to redesign the museum. She was delighted to be given the opportunity to do so. “It’s very democratic here,” says Mareike Möller, who also supervises the volunteers on their practical year in Altenburg. “I have a lot of varied tasks here, although I actually ‘only’ came here for digitalization.” In the time she has left in addition to her half-time position in Altenburg, she works as a freelance paper restorer near Leipzig. Mareike Möller, who completed her Master’s degree in 2018 and, after a first job at the Center for Book Conservation in Leipzig, is now working in a museum undergoing upheaval, change and reorganization. She is also pleased that she “can still dream a little and see what can be realized.”
The Lindenau Museum in Altenburg has been presenting its art treasures since 1876. Discover the museum and its collections in the video:
