On January 19, 2023 at 16.00 Renée van de Vall will give her farewell lecture at the Aula of Maastricht University, Minderbroedersberg 4-6 Maastricht and via livestream: https://youtu.be/v3BTq_6fnUw

The title of the lecture is: ‘Caring for contemporary art: Reflections on ethics and aesthetics in precarious times’. There will be a reception afterwards.

Prior to the farewell lecture from 10.30 - 15.00 hrs, there will be a symposium, titled ‘Care as Transdisciplinary Concept’ at the auditorium of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and via livestream (Zoom Webinar): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85434385491​​
Full program can found below.

In many titles of publications, events and projects on the conservation of contemporary art the notion of care appears. From Modern Art: Who Cares? (Symposium 1997; publication 1999) to Performance: the Ethics and Politics of Care (Colloquium Bern University of the Arts, 2021), using the term ‘care’ promises a way to open up restricted notions of conservation and preservation in the face of the inevitable change, both of the work itself and of the worlds it inhabits.

‘Care’ has also gained visibility as critical concept beyond the field of medical and health care: as a feminist/posthumanist approach to issues of global inequality, climate crisis and loss of biodiversity. The notion of care provides a starting point to critically reflect on our living together with other humans and non-humans by focusing on mutual connections and dependencies rather than autonomous agency, instrumentality and competition. How can contemporary art conservation profit from this theoretical movement and vice versa, what can it contribute to this body of thought?

This symposium brings together researchers who reflect on contemporary art conservation, music conservation, health and dementia care, and human-animal relations. They reflect on what theories of care bring to their specific fields and what these fields can learn from each other. A central question for the symposium is how we can best understand relations between care-givers and care-receivers, in particular when they do not speak the same language.​

10.00-10:30 Reception with coffee
10.30-10:40 Introduction by Renée van de Vall
10.40-10:50 Moderators Tatja Scholte and IJsbrand Hummelen
10.50-11:10 Vivian van Saaze and Dirk van de Leemput, A Promise of Care. On the Conservation of Contemporary Art
11.10-11:30 Jessica Mesman and Mareike Smolka, The Double Vision of Care in STS Engagement Research
11:30-11:50 Ike Kamphof, Aagje Swinnen and Ruud Hendriks, Reimagining Dementia Care: The Potential of Assemblages
11.50-12.15 Discussion 
12:15-13:15 Lunch
13.15-13:35 Peter Peters, Denise Petzold and Veerle Spronck, Caring for Classical Music.
13.35-13:55 Annet Dekker, Digital Preservation: A Speculative Practice?
13.55-14:15 Louis van den Hengel, How to Conserve Art at the End of the World? Toward a Queer Ecology of Care.
14.15-14:35 Pip Laurenson, Care Time and Pace in the Lives of Artworks, the Practices of Conservation, and the Contemporary Art Museum.
14.35-15.00 Discussion
15.00 end (departure to Minderbroedersberg)