Seminar on conservation problems

Different approaches to conservation and conservation education will be the topics discussed during an evening seminar entitled "As good as new?", organised by the Institute for Conservation and Restoration Studies at the Malta Centre for Restoration (MCR) on Wednesday, July 23, at 6.30 p.m. The seminar will be held in the Aula George Whitmore in the East Wing at MCR's Bighi campus, Kalkara.

Over the years some "restorations" have often produced a work of art which is quite different from the original. Should this be permissible? How do you avoid a restoration resulting in a completely different work which the original artist would probably not recognise? What is the role of the education received by the conservator-restorer in achieving the right ethical balance in a conservation project?

Are there still restoration schools teaching a philosophy of conservation which permits a measure of artistic expression to the conservator-restorer? In practice, for example, how do you avoid ending up with a portrait of a woman with three different eyes painted by three different "restorers" in at least three different places? These are just some of the questions which will be tackled during the next in the series of MCR seminars on conservation of cultural heritage.

The seminar will open with a paper on "Principles and pragmatism: In this paper, MCR chairman Dr Joseph Cannataci, deputy director Dr Martina Caruana and director Joseph Schirò will identify no fewer than 12 categories of conservation education which have developed in Europe during the period 1933-2003 and refer to some of the major thinkers who have left an impact on the teaching of conservation theory.

This paper will set the context for the next paper by Zuzana Bauerova, "Methodological approaches in conservation in Slovakia: past and present perspectives." Ms Bauerova will explain how a philosophy of conservation developed within the "Vienna School" before the Second World War and how this was then implemented by Slanski in Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s and early Fifties. She will also examine the extent to which this philosophy accepts a level of artistic expression within conservation and illustrates some of the practical problems encountered to date.

Ms Bauerova qualified as a paintings conservator at the Academy of Fine Art and Design in Bratislava and then graduated in History of Art from the Comenius University, Bratislava. She is currently researching the impact of art historical theories on conservation practices in Central Europe.

The general public is invited to attend the seminar. Members of the audience are requested to be seated by 6.15 p.m. Entrance is free. The seminar will also be broadcast live by satellite to MCR's IKONOS partners in Greece, Jordan and Morocco.