For three days, the Documenta is reserved for trade visitors and journalists. The major five-year exhibition opens tomorrow, Saturday. Restorers are indispensable at the world-famous show. Tilmann Daiber and Eckehard Kneer are once again working for this year’s Documenta. Our Berlin correspondent Uta Baier spoke to them. Advertorial Article Parallax Article The list of documenta staff includes […]

For three days, the Documenta is reserved for trade visitors and journalists. The major five-year exhibition opens tomorrow, Saturday. Restorers are indispensable at the world-famous show. Tilmann Daiber and Eckehard Kneer are once again working for this year’s Documenta. Our Berlin correspondent Uta Baier spoke to them.

In addition to many curators, the list of documenta staff includes three restorers: one Greek, who is responsible for the Athens station, and two Germans: Ekkehard Kneer from Berlin and Tilman Daiber from Stuttgart. Both are working for the documenta for the fifth time. Uta Baier spoke to them about their tasks and their fascination with the world art exhibition in Kassel.

Why do you work as conservatorsfor documenta?

Ekkehard Kneer: A documenta is always a great event that requires a great deal of personal input. That’s why we are very happy to be part of it again. And we can contribute the experience we have gained from previous documenta exhibitions.

Tilman Daiber: I can only agree with that. You develop a great affinity with this event.

Is Kassela special challenge for you? Or whatdo you as conservators like about working on this type of event exhibition?

Tilman Daiber: The conservator’s field of work has changed over the past 20 years anyway – a lot of exhibition support has been added. This is also a large part of our documenta work. The documenta is also regarded as the most important exhibition of contemporary art in the world. Working on it is very exciting and a great challenge.

What kind of challenge?

Tilman Daiber: We have a team of six employees who want to ensure that the 700 or so works of art by more than 100 artists at around 30 venues have a good stay. That alone is a logistical challenge.

Ekkehard Kneer: Since most things are decided spontaneously on site, this dynamic of setting up the exhibition is the challenge – regardless of whether it has to do with huge crates or a spontaneous window removal.

What are your specific tasks?

Ekkehard Kneer: There are always many new productions that are created directly for Kassel. As soon as the concepts are ready, questions are asked of us as material specialists during implementation. With our knowledge of the history of the materials, we can give a tip or two. Otherwise, we only look after the works once they are finished and we draw up condition reports. One of the special features of an exhibition like documenta are exhibition venues that do not correspond to classic museum conditions. Our work is therefore not so much about classic restoration, but more about advising on planning, installation and the actual set-up.

Tilman Daiber: Once the exhibition is open, the main focus is on caring for the works of art. We make daily care tours.

This year, Athens is also an exhibition venue for documenta. Have you also been to Athens?

Tilman Daiber: No, we have our own team there. We were on standby if something had happened, but it didn’t.

Ekkehard Kneer: We briefly summarized our experiences beforehand and made them available to the team in Athens. They had never prepared such a large exhibition before.

You’ve already mentioned that alarge part of your work is accompanying the exhibition and setting it up. To what extent is this different from the work youdo for other exhibitions?

Tilman Daiber: It’s actually the size of this exhibition that makes the work special. Once you’ve experienced it, not much scares you anymore.

What was thebiggestdamage youhad to repair during the exhibition?

Ekkehard Kneer: Every documenta is bigger than its predecessor and has more visitors. Humidity and dust levels increase. During our tours, we sometimes have to remove dust from works of art every day.

I have also observed another development: Increasingly, artists want to enable visitors to interact with the artworks. However, as they have more experience in the much smaller and more protected gallery environment, there is more frequent damage. After all, hundreds of thousands of people “use” such works in Kassel. It is always annoying that a damaged work of art is then closed for the duration of the restoration. That’s why we work with the artists and curators to find a practicable way to ensure that works are not so vulnerable when they are used.

Tilman Daiber: And of course there is also vandalism. Especially with the outdoor sculptures.

There is a lot of talk about the brutalization of morals in public spaces. What are your experiences? How do documenta visitors treat the art? Different from twenty years ago?

Tilman Daiber: Unfortunately, there is less respect for art. Of course, an exhibition like this also has the character of an event, which is intended to appeal to many different visitors. A certain lack of understanding towards contemporary art has accompanied me for many years. In my view, nothing has changed.

Ekkehard Kneer: A brutalization of morals – no. But I have the impression that the many touchscreens and virtual realities that people are constantly using today have increased the desire to touch something. Whether this has to do with a lack of tactile experience or with the habit of being able to touch everything on the screens, I don’t know. But I can see that many visitors touch and feel the art.

Do you actually have a favorite documenta?

Ekkehard Kneer: My first documenta collaboration was in 1992 at d 9. That was my initiation, so to speak – not only in Kassel but also into the world of contemporary art. These first experiences were, of course, very formative, because the first time you see your surroundings with much greater attention.

Tilman Daiber: My first was documenta 10, which I experienced as a student and which was formative. But I have to say that I found the last one, d13, very remarkable because of its selection of art and the contemporary spirit that prevailed there.

In both Kassel and Athens, the Documenta lasts 100 days. In Athens, the Documenta can be seen until July 16. You can read an article about this year’s Documenta in the current July issue of RESTAURO 4/2017.

On February 10, 2022, the Landesverband der Museen zu Berlin e.V. (LMB), together with the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e. V. and the Netzwerk Agile Kultur, invites you to the digital release event of the anthology “Museums of the Future. Trends and Challenges of an Innovation-Oriented Cultural Management” (edited by Henning Mohr and Diana Modarressi-Tehrani). As society changes, traditional ways of working in museums are increasingly […].

On February 10, 2022, the Landesverband der Museen zu Berlin e.V. (LMB), together with the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e. V. and the Netzwerk Agile Kultur, invites you to the digital release event of the anthology “Museen der Zukunft. Trends and challenges of innovation-oriented cultural management” (edited by Henning Mohr and Diana Modarressi-Tehrani)

As society changes, the traditional working methods of museums are increasingly reaching their limits: The framework conditions for the management of cultural institutions are changing fundamentally. Nevertheless, topics such as cultural entrepreneurship and leadership, design thinking and artificial intelligence are still only peripheral issues in the museum discourse.

What should the museums of the future look like? And what significance does innovation have for the sustainable development of cultural institutions? This volume brings together contributions from leading personalities from the museum and cultural landscape who present forward-looking methods and approaches for work in museums from different perspectives.

Joint cooperation

The joint event of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, the LMB-Landesverband der Museen zu Berlin and the Netzwerk Agile Kultur will be moderated by Martin Zierold, Head of the Institute for Culture and Media Management at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. The panel will include LMB chairpersons Patricia Rahemipour and Paul Spies, publisher Henning Mohr, authors Patrick S. Föhl, Anna Greve, Daniel Neugebauer and Ivana Scharf as well as Doreen Mölders.

The initiators

Dr. Henning Mohr is head of the Institute for Cultural Policy of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e.V. in Bonn. The culture and innovation manager has worked for the German Mining Museum in Bochum, among others. He previously completed his doctorate at the DFG Research Training Group “Innovation Society Today” (TU Berlin, Institute of Sociology) on the innovation potential of artistic interventions in transformation processes.

Participation is free of charge. Registration at: https://kulturprojekteberlin.typeform.com/to/mBMyMXJc…

Reading tip: What does the future of museums look like? Museum Association President Eckard Köhne calls for appropriate support for museums from politicians and museum sponsors. After all, museums should not be reduced to their entertainment function, as they are places of education. Read more about this here.