Stigter, S.

English

Summary of the Inside Installations project's research results concerning the case study of Franz West, 'Clamp'

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications

UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)Franz West: Clamp, 1995Stigter, S.Publication date2007Document VersionFinal published versionPublished inInside installations: preservation and presentation of installation artLink to publicationCitation for published version (APA):Stigter, S. (2007). Franz West: Clamp, 1995. In T. Scholte, & P. 't Hoen (Eds.), Insideinstallations: preservation and presentation of installation art (pp. 36-37). ICN / SBMK.http://www.sbmk.nl/uploads/inside-installations-kl.pdfGeneral rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s)and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an opencontent license (like Creative Commons).Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, pleaselet the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the materialinaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letterto: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Youwill be contacted as soon as possible.Download date:09 Mar 2023inside installationsPreservation and Presentation of Installation Artwww.inside-installations.orgEulàlia Valldosera, Flying #1 New YorkFranz West, Clamp3736Franz West, Clamp, 1995Kröller-Müller Museum; sanneke stigterEulàlia Valldosera, Flying #1 New York, 2003Collección de Arte Contemporáneo Fundación ‘La Caixa’; cecilia Illa malvehyaccording to the artist’s statement, this work explores the ways in which perception of movement affects our perception of space, and our sense of belonging to a place or a social system.through ten projectors, ten mirrors and ten small electric motors a continuous moving image is projected on to the walls of the gallery which surrounds the spectator. the image, inspired by the events of 11 september 2001 (a sort of manhattan sky line), appears and disappears every 60 seconds. Many difficulties were encountered in maintaining the work during the exhibi-tion and much time (and money) was spent ensuring the proper functioning of the work. In that sense it has been the most problematic art installation within the contemporary art collection. slides, projector bulbs, and other spare parts had to be constantly replaced, and the projectors needed to be sent for repair, etc. substitution of the spare components was complicated in itself, and furthermore that operation implies the de-synchronization of the ten projected images; to re-synchronize them was quite a complicated and time-consuming job. It was obvious that the original analogue projectors were not designed to be used for normal exhibition periods. In order to better understand what is important to preserve in this art installa-tion, conservators and technicians worked closely with the artist to understand the artist’s intention; the projected images should as far as possible be identi-cal with the original ones.the results of this study were documented in video, photographs, texts and plans. replacing the original analogue projectors by digital projectors seemed to be the best solution to the technical problems, since analogue technology is about to be superseded. As more effective digital projectors are constantly being developed and new models become available at increasingly affordable prices, it does seem possible to resolve these difficulties. We are still in the process of selecting the best option.this case study has enabled us to explore a complex installation in detail, working closely with the technicians and the artist to create invaluable primary material for the future care of this work, and to resolve the technical difficul-ties involved in this installation. the correlation of the slide projection with the new digital projectors is quite a delicate operation that has to be very closely supervised by the artist, since many variables are implicated.the Clamp is an environment that is based on the artist’s former studio with the actual floor of his studio included. Colourful objects made out of painted plaster and papier-mâché are placed in and around the Clamp as well as benches and tables made in a style that is typical of West. the visitor can make himself at home in this ‘environmental collage’ and make a telephone call: the walls are covered with pages from the local phonebook. Clamp is an object-based installation characterized by interactive as well as site-related aspects. the history of the exhibition shows that important initial features have changed gradually or even disappeared. It became apparent that loss of memory and lack of documentation on the actual role and nature of both the tangible and less tangible components that constitute the Clamp, could have led to permanent loss of specific aspects of the installation. The research focused on the history and development of the work, as well as documentation combined with the practice of reinstalling the work to obtain a better understanding, and develop a better way of managing the artwork.documents of the exhibition history show how the Clamp has changed over time. the installation has been put together freely on every other occasion, changing its constellation, which is according to the artist’s ideas. the biggest change appeared after the first show. At that time the visitors could actually use the telephones that were provided within the Clamp, but this feature was never seen afterwards. the role of the telephone within the work is obvi-ously an important one considering the fact that some of the works are called ‘telephone sculptures’, there are phonebook pages on the wall, and the public was welcome to make a telephone call. the note on a Post-it in the museum archive stated that West had changed his instruction that ‘two telephones’ had to be part of Clamp, because nowadays everyone has a mobile phone. Further research unearthed a different text that was used during the second exhibition of the Clamp and that does not mention the telephones. the disappearance of the actual telephone(s) and the explanatory texts from the installation, the history of the walls that had weakened severely once they were cut with a jigsaw before transport to Otterlo and the reinforcement of the original floor panels, have all had a big impact on the character of the Clamp. the walls and floor can only be installed according to a certain layout without weakening the material any further. The original floor tiles were fixed upside down permanently, so that the paint stains referring to the artist’s studio can no longer be seen. these alterations have had a big impact on the use and experience of the Clamp, but were not documented by the museum before. detective work in the archives has uncovered new and interesting information. this has helped to answer some questions raised at the beginning of the project and made it possible to reinstall the work according to the ideas of West. conservation treatment has been carried out on several objects and preventative conservation measures have been taken to ensure that the various materials do not have a damaging effect on each other. Supportive construc-tions are fabricated for the transportation and storage of the fragile compo-nents and guidelines for handling and installation have been developed. the installation is thoroughly documented and it will be investigated how best to incorporate the information within our registration system. the conservator needs to understand the physical and the less tangible aspects that constitute an installation, in order to consolidate the functionality of the artwork. a sound documentation is needed that foresees future conservation and installation problems. The artist’s ideas should be clearly defined and the different forms in which an artwork may have existed should be documented.37colofonedItors tatja scholte (Icn), Paulien ’t Hoen (sBmK)text edItor Helene reid (subtext translations)desIgn ariënne BoelensedItIon 5000PrInter drukkerij lecturis© 2007 Icn / sBmKall rights reserved to the authors, museums and artists. Phil collins, they shoot horses, 2004© Phil collins, courtesy Kerlin gallery, dublin | tate collection (t12030) tacita dean, Disappearance at Sea, 1996 © tacita dean, courtesy Frith street gallery, london | tate collection (t07455)olafur eliasson, Notion Motion, 2005 | Photo: Hans Wilschut carlos garaicoa, Letter to the Censors (Carta a los censores), 2003 © carlos garaicoa manso | Photo:tate conservation | tate collection (t11864)Pierre Huyghe, Two Minutes Out of Time, 2000 | Photo: Peter coxgreg lynn & Fabian marcaccio, The Predator, 1999 | Photo: gregg lynn studiogustav metzger, Liquid Crystal Environment, 1965-66 (remake 2005)© gustav metzger | tate collection (t12160) Bruce nauman, MaPPiNg ThE STuDiO ii with color shift, flip, flop & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage), 2001 @ ars, ny and dacs, london 2005 | Photo: tate Photography | co-owned by tate (t11893), Pompidou centre Paris, Kunstmuseum Basel nam June Paik, One Candle, 1988 | Photo: axel schneider  tino sehgal, This is Propaganda, 2002no photograph available as the artist does not allow any documentation of his installations. IsBn 978-90-812088-1-964

Franz West: Clamp, 1995

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Franz West: Clamp, 1995

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