Conserving and repainting one of Damien Cabanes’s outdoor sculptures: a challenge in combining conservation ethics, artist wishes and technical aspects. In Working Towards a Sustainable Past, ICOM-CC 20th Triennial Conference Preprints, Valencia, 18–22 September 2023, ed. J. Bridgland. Paris: International Council of Museums
Résumé
After 10 years of its exhibition outdoors, a sculpture by Damien Cabanes, Sans titre – completed in 2000 and consisting of glass-reinforced epoxy and polyurethane paint – was in such poor condition that its complete repainting was the only treatment option. An interdisciplinary research project, involving the artist, a conservator, a curator, a scientist, fabricators, and industrial paint manufacturers, was established in order to understand why the paint had degraded so quickly and to assess the stability of alternative paint systems that met the aesthetic and technical criteria of the artist. This project, which led to a complete repainting of the artwork, posed multiple challenges related to conservation ethics, the artist’s wishes, technical aspects, and adequate documentation.