MACCH Annual Conference 2016

Recent developments in art and heritage worlds call to our attention questions of fairness and justice. While art and heritage practices have always been governed, implicitly or explicitly, by standards of fairness and justice, these standards are subject to change and are approached differently from the relevant academic fields of anthropology, cultural studies, economics, history, law, sociology, and the conservation sciences.

This conference, organised by MACCH in partnership with the Bonnefantenmuseum, aimed to analyse and contextualize (un-)fair practices in art and heritage worlds from a variety of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary perspectives. For instance, while we currently witness a global explosion of art and heritage markets with billion-dollar auction sales dominated by ultra rich buyers, most individual artists cannot earn a living wage. And as subsidies are cut for public art and heritage institutions, ever-larger private museums emerge that house the art collections of the super rich – who in return may claim tax reductions for their philanthropy. But these issues of income inequality and distributive justice are by no means the only matters of fairness in art and heritage worlds today: A surge of art forgery cases, the illicit trade in – or restitution of – looted objects of art and heritage, as well as controversies regarding the conservation of artworks hint at further challenges and risks, respectively. How can art and heritage worlds fairly acknowledge these economic, political and ethical challenges and mitigate the legal risks? What are best practices of fairness and justice when it comes to building and reassuring trust and transparency in the market, as well as when it comes to establishing and enforcing necessary legal frameworks and regulations in art and heritage worlds at large?

In collaboration with Cinema Lumiere and Studium Generale, MACCH organised the moderated film series "Fake it or Leave it: on fair and just practices in art and heritage worlds".

Preceding the conference, from 15 to 17 March, the film series aimed to analyse, visualise and contextualise (un-)fair practices in art and heritage worlds from a variety of disciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives.