XVI Semana de la ciencia de Madrid 2016
Surrealist Object. Anoxia, Display Cases and Chocolate
In conjunction with the XVI Madrid Science Week, the Museo Reina Sofía is joined by the IPCE, Spain’s Cultural Heritage Institute, to organise within its programme of activities the following technical encounter: The Surrealist Object. Anoxia, Display Cases and Chocolate.
The conservation of certain unique materials present in contemporary artworks calls for the use of specific methods and systems. This encounter focuses on Salvador Dalí’s work Objet surréaliste (Surrealist Object, 1936), comprising a chocolate glove and other objects, for which a display case with a controlled atmosphere – low in oxygen (anoxia) – has been designed. This formula is suitable for displaying such pieces, which are made up of chemically and biologically sensitive materials, thus making them difficult to conserve.
The activity is prefaced by a tribute to doctor Shin Maekawa, an engineer at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) who devised the original design of the anoxia display cases for museums and worked with Spanish institutions linked to heritage conservation for over two decades, up until his death in July 2016. During the last year of his life, Maekawa was actively working at GCI on the technical and material support for developing the anoxia case presented inside this framework.
The innovative systems built into this anoxia case have been developed and verified in the research projects from the National Research Plan in Heritage Conservation, coordinated by the IPCE, and are the outcome of interdisciplinary work by skilled professionals from a range of institutions, companies and museums. The Museo Reina Sofía’s participation in this project is alongside Spain’s Cultural Heritage Institute; the National Institute for Aerospace Technology; the Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology; the SIT Business Group; the National Archaeological Museum of Spain; the Museum of the Americas; the National Anthropology Museum, and the Ministry of Culture (MECD).
Within the framework of: Madrid Science Week