2022 INCCA/CAN! Virtual Speed Mentoring - Session 1

Dr. Aga Wielocha is a researcher and collection care professional specializing in contemporary art. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow in “Activating Fluxus” research project located at Bern University of Arts. Her PhD earned from the University of Amsterdam, investigated the lives and futures of contemporary art in institutional collections. Between 2019 and 2022 she worked as a conservator at the Hong Kong M+ Museum. Prior to her doctoral studies, Aga served as a conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Her general research interests lie in mechanisms and processes of institutional collecting and preserving with a focus on processual, contemporary art formats, such as art projects, participatory art and performance. Languages Spoken: English and Polish.

Albrecht (Al) is a seasoned conservator working on modern and contemporary objects and installations for over 20 years. His formal conservation training in Berlin enabled him in the 1990s to specialise in Conservation of Technical Heritage, a field characterised by the vast diversity of materials.  Subsequently Al spent 14 years as the object conservator at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, caring for Special Collections. In 2012 he moved to Switzerland to join the conservation team of Museum Tinguely in Basel, mostly dealing with kinetic artwork. Between 2017 and 2020 he was part of the conservation team at M+ in Hong Kong, contributing to the effort of opening a brand new museum. Al is currently living in Singapore. Languages Spoken: English and German.

Caitlin Southwick is the Founder and Executive Director of Ki Culture and Sustainability in Conservation (SiC). She holds a Professional Doctorate in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the University of Amsterdam. Before founding Ki Culture, Caitlin worked in the conservation field for eight years in museums and sites around the world, including the Vatican Museums, The Getty Conservation Institute, The Uffizi Gallery, and Rapa Nui. She is the Secretary of the Working Group on Sustainability for the International Council of Museums (ICOM), a member of the Steering Committee on Climate for Europeana, and a Climate Reality Leader for the Climate Reality Project. Languages Spoken: English and Dutch.

Christel holds the position of Chief Conservator/Deputy Director at the Heritage Conservation Centre (HCC) in Singapore. After graduating in 2005 from University Paris 1- Sorbonne, Christel worked as Paper Conservator at the Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego before joining the Getty Conservation Institute where she specialised in colour science, microfading (MFT) and formulation of museum lighting policy.  Before moving to Singapore, Christel served as Senior Conservator at M+ in Hong Kong where she contributed to building the conservation team while developing its collection care activities and preparing its opening. In Singapore, she is currently focusing her efforts on how to develop and implement more sustainable Collection care practice(s), considering the needs and expected uses of the Collection within its historical, cultural, environmental and institutional context. Languages Spoken: English and French.

Since 2012, Christine is a partner of bek&frohnert LLC. She is also a Research Scholar and Time-based Media Art Program Director of the first Time-based Media Conservation Program in the US at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She was the inaugural Judith Praska Distinguished Visiting Professor teaching a seminar course Art with a Plug – The Conservation of Artworks containing Motion, Sound, Light, Moving Images and Interactivity in Fall 2012. Christine continued to teach TBM conservation foundation classes, organized workshops and co-organized the conference It’s About Time. Christine was the chair (2008-2012) of the Electronic Media Group at the American Institute for Conservation and initiated the conference series TechFocus. She held the position of Chief Conservator at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, from 2000-2005. Building on her original training as a painting and sculpture conservator, Christine graduated from the Conservation of Modern Materials and Media Program at the University of Arts, Berne, Switzerland (2003). Languages Spoken: English and German.

Emily Mulvihill established Current Art Conservation in 2020 in regional Australia to provide contemporary art conservation services to the east coast of Australia. Prior to moving back to Australia, she was the former Project Associate Painting Conservator at The David Booth Conservation Department, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. She has held a position as a Painting Conservator at Amann + Estabrook Conservation Associates (A+E), New York, from 2015 to 2018. Working in this high paced environment she has learned how to hone her problem-solving skills to become an efficient and effective painting conservator. Prior to moving to the United States, Emily worked as a painting conservator at the Australian War Memorial (AWM), Canberra and The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra. Language Spoken: English.

Dr. Hanna B. Hölling is Research Professor at Bern University of Applied Sciences/Academy of the Arts and honorary Associate Professor at the University College London. In Bern, she leads two research projects, Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge and Activating Fluxus, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Hanna’s research, publications and teaching focus on the art and material culture since the 1960s, including performance, film, video, installation and land and environmental art, as well as on the ethics, aesthetics and philosophy in and of conservation. Before joining academia, Hanna served as Head of Conservation at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. Languages Spoken: English, German, and Polish.

Joanna Phillips is a Time-Based Media Conservator and Director of the Düsseldorf Conservation Center in Germany. She was previously Senior Conservator of Time-Based Media at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2008–19), where she launched the first media conservation lab in a US museum, implemented time-based media conservation practices, and headed the Conserving Computer-Based Art (CCBA) initiative. She co-founded the AIC conference series TechFocus and lectures and publishes on TBM topics internationally. As a researcher in the Swiss project AktiveArchive, she co-authored the "Compendium of Image Errors in Analog Video" (2013). She is also co-editor of the forthcoming book "Conservation of Time-based Media Art" (Routledge 2022). Phillips earned her MA in paintings conservation from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, Germany. Languages Spoken: English and German.

Marta García Celma is a Hong-Kong based conservator and researcher specialised in photography and contemporary art conservation. Since 2019, Marta holds the position of Photograph Conservator at M + Museum of contemporary visual culture in Hong Kong. She is also a PhD candidate within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network project 'New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art' (NACCA). Her research ‘Authenticity and Reproducibility: Conservation Strategies for Contemporary Photography’ observes the practice of reproduction as a conservation strategy for photographs. Marta holds a Master’s degree in conservation from Camberwell College of Arts (London) and a BA+MA in Fine Arts and Photography from Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and Willem de Kooning Academie (The Netherlands). Languages Spoken: English and Spanish.

Martina Pfenninger Lepage graduated in Conservation of Modern Materials and Media from the Bern Academy of the Arts, in 2004. She worked at Documenta 11, at Schaulager in Basel and was Case Researcher and Assistant Co-organizer for the EU-project Inside Installations at the Restaurierungszentrum in Düsseldorf. From 2007 to 2020 she has been Head of the Studio for Contemporary Art Conservation at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She also worked part-time as a conservator for the collection Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21). Since 2020 she is co-leading the program in Conservation of Modern Materials and Media at the Bern Academy of the Arts. Her research focus lies on installation art and contemporary sculptures. Languages Spoken: English, German, and French.

Dr. Valentina Pintus is a Senior Conservation Scientist at the Institute for Natural Sciences and Technology in the Arts and a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Conservation-Restoration , Modern-Contemporary Art, both at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she started her career in 2009. She received her PhD in Natural Sciences (2012) at TU WIEN with previous bachelor`s and master´s degrees in Conservation Science at the Universities of Cagliari and Bologna. With strong expertise mainly in modern and contemporary art, and with enduring collaborations with several international institutions, she has been involved in numerous national and international research projects focused on the investigation of synthetic organic polymers, as well as traditional organic materials and Asian lacquers. Additionally, she was a project leader on a study of the impact of LED lights on modern paints. Valentina is team member of the Heritage Science Austria platform, Associate Editor of the Conservar Patrimonio, and guest editor of the Special Issue Polymeric Materials in Modern-Contemporary Art of Polymers. Languages Spoken: English, Italian, and German.