Biocides and contaminated objects are part of everyday museum life. Dr. Pascal Querner is organizing the expert conference “Biocides and contaminated collections – analyses, protection, practical examples, exchange of experience” on 12/13 February 2020 in Vienna Arsenic in historical stuffing preparations, wooden objects and buildings contaminated with lindane – the list of substances hazardous to health in everyday museum life is long. What alternatives do institutions have to protect both […]

Biocides and contaminated objects are part of everyday museum life. Dr. Pascal Querner is organizing the expert conference “Biocides and contaminated collections – analyses, protection, practical examples, exchange of experience” on 12/13 February 2020 in Vienna

Arsenic in historical stuffing preparations, wooden objects and buildings contaminated with lindane – the list of harmful substances in everyday museum life is long. What alternatives do institutions have to both preserve valuable objects and protect their staff?

Dr. Pascal Querner from the Vienna University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts is organizing the conference “Biocides and contaminated collections” on this topic. On February 12 and 13, 2020, experts from Germany, Switzerland and Austria will come together to present practical information based on analyses and case studies. In addition to expert presentations, there will also be space for networking and discussion. All interested parties from collections and museums, libraries and foundations, monasteries, universities and schools are cordially invited.

Program:

February 12, 2020: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna – Aula alte WU

8:00 – 8:50 Registration

8:50 – 9:00 Pascal Querner, Wolfang Baatz: Welcome

9:00 – 9:30 Hans Zaller: Our daily poison – biocides in everyday life.

9:30 – 10:00 Achim Unger: Introduction to the history of the use of biocides.

10:00 – 10:30 Helene Tello: Pest control in museum collections at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

10:30 – 11:00 Break

11:00 – 11:30 Katharina Deering, Elise Spiegel: Environmental and human biomonitoring of arsenic, mercury and organochlorine biocides. Results of a pilot study using the example of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

11:30 – 12:00 Boaz Paz: Analytical methods for the detection of biocides in museum collections.

12:00 – 12:30 Amélie Nusser: Biocide analysis methods for acute biocide suspicion in the SPK, Berlin.

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break

13:30 – 14:00 Josef Bailer: Pollutant analysis and mass spectrometry in Austrian museums.

14:00 – 14:30 Ute Denkenberger: Practical report from the vorarlberg museum: On attempts to record hazards and minimize them in everyday collection life.

14:30 – 15:00 Laura Resenberg: Practical report: Tiroler Landesmuseen. Dealing with contaminated collection items during depot relocation.

15:00 – 15:30 Break

15:30 – 16:30 Martin Troxler: Investigations into the handling of arsenic-contaminated objects from natural history collections in schools and museums.

16:30 – 17:00 Robert Linke, Verena Waschkau: Historical applications of biocides in Austria and challenges for the Federal Monuments Office.

17:00 – 17:30 Barbara Pönighaus-Matuella, Christiane Jordan, Martina Griesser: Biocides in the collections of the Weltmuseum Wien.

February 13, 2020: Academy of Arts – Old WU

8:30 – 9:00 Jörg Weber, Achim Unger: Super gasoline additives for the elution of historical wood preservatives.

9:00 – 9:30 Achim Unger: Decontamination methods for cultural property – state of the art and evaluation.

9:30 – 10:00 Ina Wohlfahrt-Sauermann: Cleaning and handling of contaminated objects and buildings in an open-air museum.

10:00 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 11:00 Boaz Paz: Biocide problems with contaminated large objects. Handling, transportation and decontamination.

11:00 – 11:30 Heinrich Piening: Practice from the Bavarian Palace Administration on biocides and contaminated objects.

11:30 – 12:00 Elise Spiegel: Working safely in contaminated areas – technical, organizational and personal protective measures as the basis for targeted occupational safety.

12:00 – 12:20 Zutz Christoph: Biocide regulation in the EU today.

12:20 – 12:30 Sabine Prozell: Short presentation on biotests with beneficial organisms.

12:30 – 12:50 Stephan Biebl: Pesticides in the past and IPM today.

12:50 – 13:00 Pascal Querner: Summary of the event.

Location: Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Augasse 2 to 6, A-1090 Vienna, Costs: 250 Euro / 100 Euro (half day)

Please register at pascal.querner@gmx.at

Organizer: IPM working group in cooperation with ÖRV and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

The swan can be found in many works of art – sometimes as a decorative representation, sometimes in mythological scenes. Its elegant appearance, its silent gliding over the water and its clear, almost sculptural form have inspired painters, sculptors and musicians for centuries. The swan stands for purity, change and beauty – characteristics that make it one of the most versatile motifs in painting, sculpture and music.

The swan played a special role in early cultures. In Greek mythology, it was closely associated with Apollo and Aphrodite and was regarded as a symbol of light, music and love. The story of Leda and the swan, in which Zeus comes to earth in the form of a swan, is particularly well-known. This story has been taken up many times in European art – for example by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens. In these depictions, the swan appears as a symbol between the divine and the human. It embodies attraction and beauty as well as power and transformation – themes that have preoccupied artists for centuries.

In Renaissance art, the swan found its place above all as a symbol of beauty and purity. It appeared in mythological scenes as well as in landscapes, where it became an expression of harmonious order and ideal form – in keeping with the humanist pursuit of moderation and balance. In the Baroque period, the swan took on a more representative, often allegorical role. In magnificent ceiling paintings and sculptures, it appeared as the companion of muses, poets or gods – a symbol of artistic inspiration and divine grace. The swan was also a popular motif in courtly art: it stood for dignity, splendor and grace, but at the same time for the transience of all earthly beauty. Finally, in the Rococo period, the swan became the epitome of playful elegance. In porcelain scenes, murals and park architecture (for example in the pleasure gardens of Sanssouci), it served as an element of a refined aesthetic that balanced lightness and symbolism.

Its meaning changed noticeably during the Romantic period. Now the swan was no longer seen merely as a symbol of grace, but as a symbol of loneliness, longing and transience. In paintings by Caspar David Friedrich or Philipp Otto Runge, it appears in quiet, melancholy landscapes – as a mirror of inner feelings. This motif was also taken up in music. Richard Wagner’s opera “Lohengrin” shows the mysterious knight gliding along on a swan, while Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” makes the animal the central figure in a tragic love story. In both cases, the swan stands for purity, transformation and the unattainable – for that suspended moment between dream and reality.

In the 20th century, the view of the swan changed again. Artists began to deconstruct or recontextualize the motif. The surrealist Salvador Dalí, for example, merged reality and imagination in “Swans Reflect Elephants” (1937). Here, the swan becomes an instrument of optical illusion – a medium that questions perception and identity.
Symbolists such as Odilon Redon and later 20th century photographers also took up the theme to reflect on beauty, death and transformation. In pop art, the swan ultimately served as a contrast to mass culture – a symbol of ideality in the age of consumerism. In contemporary art, the swan remains present: as a metaphor for environmental awareness, identity or change. Today, installations, performances and photographs show it in new, often irritating contexts and make it a crystallization point for social issues.

In addition to the visual arts, the swan plays a prominent role in music and dance. Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” is still considered the epitome of dancing grace and expressiveness. The double figure of Odette and Odile embodies the eternal interplay between light and dark, purity and temptation. In classical music, Camille Saint-Saëns created one of the most famous pieces with Le Cygne from the “Carnival of the Animals”. In it, the cello imitates the silent gliding of the swan – a meditation on grace and transience. The motif also appears again and again in modern music, as a symbol of quiet transformation or inner peace.

Today, the swan is not only found in museums and concert halls, but also in design, fashion and pop culture. Its clear outline and associations with elegance, purity and balance make it a sought-after design element. In fashion campaigns, film and photography, it functions as a symbol of style, but also of distance, strangeness and self-awareness. Contemporary artists consciously use its ambiguity. The swan becomes a vehicle for raising questions about identity, nature and the role of man in a changing world.

It is easy to understand why the swan is so enduring in art. It combines natural elegance with a clear geometric form and at the same time carries a multitude of cultural meanings. Whether as a mythological figure, romantic allegory or modern symbol – the swan remains changeable. Its quiet presence and its mixture of strength and lightness make it a motif that can be reinterpreted again and again. This is probably where its enduring fascination lies: the swan not only stands for beauty, but also for the creative ability of art to constantly rethink familiar images.