Ideales primos y maximales en anillos de extensión

5.3.1. Defining guidelines for the exhibition of Ângelo de Sousa’s slide-based artworks

5.3.1.1. Documentation

As described in chapter 2, there is a consensus that documentation is a fundamental tool for the understanding and preservation of time-based media works, helping to construct a comprehensive biography of the works. Prior to any operation related to the exhibition of a slide-based artwork, the meaning of the work must be traced for a responsible decision-making process. Relevant information for the definition of the artworks’ meaning must be registered, such as the materials employed, the artist’s working method, the production process and the artist’s intention (Berndes 2005, 166-167), as well as the history of the artwork and lifecycle of exhibitions (Wijers 2013, 238). Documentation produced by the artist in the production process can be a valuable source of information. For instance, the analysis of the documents from the file Slides found in Ângelo de Sousa’s archive relating to the work Slides de Cavalete (1978-1979) was fundamental to achieve a deeper understanding of that work.

It is also important to document the most appropriate ways of installing a slide-based artwork, which includes not only technical issues related to the artwork itself (image carrier, display equipment, etc.) but also intangible issues related to the exhibition space (spatial layout, projection sizes, equipment location, etc.). Additionally, the time characteristics, typical of time-based media art and determinant for the spectator experience, should also be documented (Matos 2015, 52). However, as Joanna Philips underlines (2015, 169): “not every exhibition space or budget allows for an ideal realization of an artwork’s concept and specifications”. Similarly to an installation that needs to be adapted to a specific space (Sommermeyer 2011, 145), unintended changes will occur when installing a slide based-artwork.

The curator Jon Ippolito (2001) argued that even if the exhibition of a work implies deviation from the original artists’ intention, it is sometimes the only way for the work to survive. According to Rebecca Gordon (2014, 97), a certain amount of variation does not necessarily interfere with the significance of the artwork. However, how the decision-making process is affecting the artwork must be documented too. Change should be recorded considering all the parameters involved in the installation of the slide-based artwork, as well as the reasons for the change (Philips 2015, 171-172). These discrepancies should also be somehow transmitted to the public who experience the artwork.

Although the importance of the documentation for the preservation of modern and contemporary art has been widely discussed by the international community (see chapter 2, section 2.3.5), this working methodology has not yet been adapted by Portuguese cultural institutions in a systematic way, possibly due to the lack of conservators in these organizations (Figueira 2015, 48-49).

5.3.1.2. Presentation

Like other time-based media works, slide-based artworks are vulnerable to two types of change.

On the one hand, the chemical instability of chromogenic reversal films causes the need for the originals to be transferred to another medium in order to be displayed. On the other hand, they can easily be detached from the conditions and technologies of their original display. Additionally, both image carrier (slides) and display equipment (projector) are highly prone to obsolescence, favouring the distance

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between the exhibition of the work at its time of conception, and exhibition of the work reinstalled at the present time (Laurenson 2011, 35).

Besides the issues related to the technology of the exhibition copies and display equipment, when a slide-based artwork is installed at the exhibition site, it must be adapted to the space (Philips 2015, 169). Different factors such as room size and illumination, the area and surface characteristics of the projection (roughness, colour, etc.), among others, might influence its perception and should therefore be judiciously selected.

Media migration?

As explained in chapters 2 and 4, Ângelo de Sousa sought to explore the materials from his time, exploiting the materiality of all media which he tested and worked with. Therefore, it can be said that materials, in general, have a significance in the artist’s works, carrying their own meaning. According to the survey conducted on the collection and presented in chapter 3, about 89% of his colour photographs are chromogenic reversal films (mostly with mountings). Since the artist scarcely used other colour photographic processes, it can be stated that slide technology is fundamental in his work.

Although Ângelo de Sousa worked a great deal with slide technology and chose to specifically exhibit some of his works using slide projectors, he also displayed slide-based artworks (sometimes even the same work) as printed photographs framed and hung on the gallery wall. For instance, in the exhibition Sem Prata about half of the slide-based works were presented in projection (the originals), and the other half in digital prints (inkjet prints), showing his openness to medium variation (Fig. 5.2).

Figure 5.2 - Number of works/series (graphic on the left) and the corresponding number of slides (graphic on the right) projected or printed for display in the exhibition Sem Prata at Museu de Arte Contemporânea from Fundação de Serralves

(2001).

Bernardo Pinto de Almeida thinks that the reason for these differences might simply be linked to the aesthetic character of the image (Almeida 2018). If in one case a slide should be displayed by projection, in others, it should be presented printed with a specific technology. Therefore, if one artwork was firstly displayed with one technology, it could later be transferred to another one, more recent,

4 5

projected works/series printed works/series

136 131

projected slides printed slides

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where the image ‘fits’ as well (or even better) (Almeida 2018). Also, Miguel Wandschneider (2018) explained that while some images could be projected in sequence, i.e. in a slide projection, due to the coherence between them, others could not, due to their autonomy. Additionally, as Ângelo de Sousa was very cautious with the materials (Ferreira 2011, 133), he could have been concerned with the durability of the artworks, after successive projections, and so opted to print them.

When questioned about how he came to the idea of replacing the original photographic and film processes by digital printing for the exhibition Sem Prata, Ângelo de Sousa explained (2001, 14):

“(…) we began talking about this exhibition sometime around Christmas 1999. But, last spring, Manuel Ulisses from [Galeria] Quadrado Azul came round to my house and, during our conversation, he asked me how far I’d got with the exhibition. By that time, I should already have begun working on it, but I was putting it off, because I knew it would give me a huge amount of work and take enormous amounts of time. My intention was to choose the pearls from amongst my treasures, then make 400 or 500 good enlargements and then, finally, choose 80 or 100. In the middle of our conversation, I remembered the photographs that I had made for the [Teatro] Rivoli, printed with inkjet after they had been digitized, and I had the idea that I wouldn’t make any enlargements on photographic paper. I immediately noted down the title for the exhibition: ‘sem prata’, ‘sin plata’, ‘without silver’, and so on…”

During the interview “A Felicidade no Gatilho”: Entrevista a Ângelo de Sousa (Sousa 2001, 14), the curators made him see that the digital format was also a useful tool for image correction, such as abrasion and staining (negatives) and colour adjustments (slides), that otherwise, according to himself, could not have been displayed (Sousa 2001, 14-15).

Similarly, several of his films were transcribed into VHS and converted to digital for display in the same exhibition. These options were made both for financial and practical reasons, due to the great number of selected films for the exhibition and long duration of the exhibition (four months) (Wandschneider 2018). When asked if he was sorry about the films not being displayed in the original format, Ângelo de Sousa explained that, although the difference between video and 8 mm chromogenic reversal film was significant, Super 8 projectors have the disadvantage of producing a small image projection, besides the difficulty of producing a duplication with good colour reproduction (Sousa 2001, 16). Probably at that time, museum staff, or other laboratories with which they worked, were not prepared to do proper duplications. It would be interesting to know what would be Ângelo de Sousa’s opinion if good duplications would have been made. The interviewers referred to the current practice of displaying celluloid copies projected in loop, to which the artist answered (Sousa 2001, 16-18):

“(…) As far as I am concerned, what matters is the image. How it’s made is my business. I don’t understand much about the subject, but probably even more would be lost in the transcription into film… I think that it’s much more economical, requires much less work and is more reliable to make the colour correction with the computer instead of using filters and emulsions. At most, I could project the originals twenty, thirty, or forty times if the machine was a very good one, until an enormous scratch would begin to appear, as happened last year when we were watching the papyrus film, or else until the machine started to chew up the film. The original would be shown until it committed hara-kiri and ceased to exist. That would be a possibility.”

Apparently, Ângelo de Sousa was, at least in 2001, quite open to the idea of migrating the original supports to another type of support, since it was, to his knowledge, the most reliable way to do it. However, he did not affirm that they should all be converted into recent technologies. The artist probably made what interested him or could be done in that specific context. What he did not made, is not necessarily deprived of value.

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In the absence of the artist and due to lack of documentation related to the decision-making process of previous exhibitions, when we are today confronted with the exhibition of Ângelo de Sousa’s slide-based artworks several questions can be raised:

- What would be Ângelo de Sousa’s opinion about the display of his artworks at present?

- How would he think at the time of the artworks production?

- Should the comments made in a specific context and period be the gauge for decision-making today? Is the interview from the exhibition Sem Prata enough to assume that Ângelo de Sousa would prefer to exhibit his photographic and filmic work using digital media?

- Most importantly, what should be preserved, the image or the total experience of a slide-based artwork?

As the curator D. H. van Wegen (2005, 207) argued, the responsibility of a conservator is with the artwork, and not with the artist. An artwork is an historical object, somehow independent of the artist, and the interpretation of contemporary art is not the artist’s job (Wegen 2005, 206-207).

According to the conservator Barbara Sommermeyer (2011, 143-144) “The conservator is responsible for the maintenance of the historicity and the zeitgeist of the work”. Within the practice of conservation of contemporary art, the artist is called to participate in the decision-making process and constitute a source of information about the work and the creative process. However, as stated by Sommermeyer (2011, 150), the artwork itself should be the central source of information. The artist often desires to update the artwork, which is a controversial option that can go against the conservator’s point-of-view.

Furthermore, it might be difficult for an artist to develop a rational distance from a work made years ago (Sommermeyer 2011, 146). Additionally, as noted by the conservator Cristina Oliveira (2016, 219) during her investigation on the conservation of installation art, the artist’s intention is not permanent.

Frequently, the participation of the artist in the re-installation of the artwork might lead to significant alterations. This is why the opinion of the artist about a work made in the past should be discerned from his supposed original intent (Stigter 2016, 174). Additionally, the concept of the work can sometimes be better understood by the audience when displayed with its original materials, helping to place the work back in its time (Stigter 2016, 175). Quoting the conservator Sanneke Stigter (2016, 175): “not only a change in the physical artwork causes shift in experience, the change in time does too, having ushered in a complete new visual culture”. In Pip Laurenson’s opinion (2005, 2), the role of a conservator is to understand what might constitute an authentic installation and ensure that this demanding goal is achieved. This is especially truth in the absence of the artist. Therefore, the conservator (along with other heritage professionals and other individuals responsible for the works), is responsible for the identification and maintenance of the significance of the artworks, so that future generations can enjoy their fullness.

In this dissertation, it is argued that the solution that better allows for the maintenance of both the original technology and presentation of Ângelo de Sousa’s slide-based artworks should, in general, be pursued.

In contrast to Ângelo de Sousa’s films, from which he made duplication masters and copies to present the works, there are no available copies of his slide-based artworks. Therefore, first-generation duplication slides copied from the original slides, at least from the most important slide-based works by the artist, should be done to ensure the preservation and display of the works with the original technology, for as long as possible (Weidner 2012d). Ideally, at least two duplication master sets should be produced: i) a reference copy set, defining a faithful representation of the artwork at present, and ii) a duplication master set, from which exhibition copies are to be done. A third restored version of a

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duplication master set can also be produced. Issues associated with colour change of the originals can be partially overcome during the duplication process by using colour filtration. Nevertheless, experience and knowledge must be acquired before being able to correctly use colour filtration settings (Weidner 2012e). Thus, restored exhibition copies could be produced to be displayed. In the absence of the artist, this duplication master set should only be done if proper restoration can be achieved. Otherwise, only exhibition copies based on the reference copy set should be displayed. A summary of the copy sets is presented in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3 - Generations of slides needed to assure the preservation and exhibition of slide-based artworks. The 1^st generation has the best quality image, followed by the 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively (adapted from Warda and Munson 2012).

Nevertheless, as mentioned before, Ângelo de Sousa also exhibited slide-based artworks using Cibachrome and digital prints. Therefore, these options might also be considered as a solution for display, especially when already used by the artist in the past. Also, if only a small quantity of slides is to be displayed, it can be easier to show prints instead of a slide projection; or if very different images are to be presented, a slide projection can be an inappropriate option. Most importantly, each work should be individually analysed on a case-by-case basis (Berndes 2005, 167). Additionally, the undertaken decisions must be substantiated and documented. The options should also be available to the public, who should be informed about the original technology.

Analogue vs Digital duplication

Since duplication slides were completely discontinued in 2010, alternatives had to be found to ensure the creation of duplication master sets. Unfortunately, the available films for duplication do not have the ideal emulsions for copying as duplication films had (low contrast film and very fine grain/very low ISO to capture detail), making difficult the production of an accurate duplication. Additionally, some information of the original image can be loss during the duplication process. Furthermore, a certain amount of variability in the results is almost inevitable due to the chemical dependence of the process (even if the processing baths are monitored and renewed to increase the stability and reproducibility of the processing) (Weidner 2012e). Nevertheless, by using chromogenic reversal films for the creation of

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a duplication master set, it is possible to maintain the image characteristics and the aesthetic content of the original work.

Besides obsolescence problems related to duplication slides, it is nowadays difficult to find photographic laboratories that duplicate slide. Similarly, there are only a few laboratories that process chromogenic reversal films, and those that still maintain the business only work with small quantities of materials⁶, which normally means that the quality of the processing materials is less rigorous (Weidner 2012). Duplication sets are, as the originals, prone to fading, and the aggressive conditions of the exhibition (light, heat, dust) force the frequent substitution of the exhibition copy sets (Noordegraaf 2013b, 287). These sets must be changed on average every six weeks, meaning that a large number of slides needs to be provided for the exhibition of every slide-based work (Weidner 2012a). Moreover, it should be considered that the original slides, master duplication sets and reference copy sets, must be kept in cold storage to prevent colour change and ensure their accurateness. Last, but not least, the high cost of duplication must be considered.

Instead of analogue duplication, digital duplication can be considered as a solution. This implies digitizing the slides and flash the digital file into a chromogenic reversal film (Depocas n.d. b). Generating a digital intermediate might be advantageous since it can be more easily manipulated than a chromogenic reversal film. For instance, colour adjustments can be applied to the digital image before printing, simplifying the colour correction process. Nonetheless, the use of digital intermediates also entails some consequences, namely deviation from the original technology. A digital image is an image electronically captured using light and converted into a numeric representation. Thus, when using a digital copy, certain characteristics of the original technology are lost (Saba 2013, 101). Additionally, digitization is a demanding process and must be carried out in a rigorous way (similarly to other conservation treatments). Moreover, the data must be migrated and reformatted in short intervals, now and again, demanding the implementation of a preservation policy for the digital archive. This makes the costs for data retention more expensive than sometimes assumed (Lavezzo et al. 2015, 173).

Furthermore, while digital data are prone to total loss, a physical support is prone to a gradual loss (Sommermeyer and van Haaften, 220-221). For all these reasons, the future availability of the digital data is still quite uncertain (Lavezzo et al. 2015, 173). It seems however inevitable that, sooner or later, digitization makes part of the preservation and exhibition process of slide-based artworks. Quoting Barbara Sommermeyer and Claartje van Haaften (2016, 226):

“On the assumption that digital technology will probably completely overtake analogue slide technology, we must continue to develop a conscious awareness of what will be lost in the process, in order to formulate precise decisions”.

According to the study conducted by Haida Liang, Pip Laurenson and David Saunders (2004), in a partnership between the Tate and the National Gallery (London), digital duplication of slide-based artworks has led to accurate copies. Thus, as this solution allows for the maintenance of the original physical support, it can be considered a good alternative to analogue duplication (Weidner 2012f). The currently available options for media migration of slide-based artworks were reviewed and are presented in Table 5.1.

6 In the Portuguese main cities, the following photographic laboratories processing chromogenic reversal films were identified: Fine Print, Colorfoto and Gamut in Lisbon, and Sempre ID and ONELAB PRO in Porto. Fine Print and Gamut also make duplication of slides.

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Table 5.1 - Summary of the available options for media migration of slide-based artworks and projection and comments on its pros and cons

Media migration Pros and cons Projection Pros and cons

Analogue duplication: duplication with commercially available chromogenic reversal films (Weidner 2012e);

Pros: reflects the imaging techniques of the time, maintains

Pros: reflects the imaging techniques of the time, maintains