October 2020
About two years ago, I assumed management of the collection of Musée de l’Elysée. The museum owns a collection of around 200,000 photographic prints, 200,000 slides on film and glass, and 800,000 negatives, acquired over the last 35 years. In just over a year the museum will move into a new building and, together with the Art Museum (MCBA) and Design Museum (MUDAC), will become part of the PLATEFORME 10 foundation. My responsibilities span the areas of classical management and communication of the collection, the relocation of the collection, and, with it, the digital transformation of our collection management system. This is a major change for the museum on multiple levels, which makes it an exciting and challenging phase. There is much to redefine – this poses a unique opportunity for the museum, whereby the coordination and cooperation among the three museums is a balancing act between benefiting from synergies and meeting individual needs.
The Collections Department is involved in several ways: defining the new archive premises and archival system, changing the database, setting up the digital infrastructure (long-term digital archive), online presentation of and access to the collections, redefining the processes, partly in coordination with the other two museums, and there will also be a new collection exhibition. Last but not least, the collections must be readied for the move, despite ongoing acquisitions and minimal user services. The Collections Department team consists of two academic staff members, a digital archivist, a documentalist, a registrar, and a photographer responsible for digitization. The team is supported by temporary personnel for specific projects, two civilian service workers, and an intern. We work very closely with the Conservation Department, which consists of a manager, a conservator, a conservation technician, and an intern.
The combined move and merger of the museums under the administration of PLATEFORME 10 is a wonderful opportunity to nurture close knowledge sharing and reciprocal support. A new shared department will also be created by the separation of IT services from the canton and the resulting need to build up an own digital infrastructure. Several aspects are of central importance for the collections. The acquisition and conservation of digital works and archives depends on storage capacities and their quality. These form the basis for the expansion of the collections into the 21st century; yet to be determined is the procedure for acquiring digital works and archives in particular, along with the required data transfers from photographers to the institution. The record management system for the digital archive of the three museums and the administration of PLATEFORME 10 must still be defined and set up – the Collections Department is managing this process for the entire museum. The collection management database will be replaced, but the three museums will have to align their needs as there will be one solution for all three. Migrating to a new database not only entails transferring enormous amounts of data, but also requires defining the workflow so that its use is coordinated among the museums. We are also using this change to adapt our processes to the Spectrum 5.0 standard in order to be as compatible as possible with other museums. The new database will enable us to work towards making the collections accessible online.
In addition to this immaterial work for the future, there is the almost endless, grinding work of evaluating the collection and preparing for the move. Thanks to the new collection and archive rooms, we will be able to consolidate most of our collections, which are currently spread over five different depots. We will likely maintain an external depot for the archival of nitrate negatives. This consolidation will take place in two phases, starting with the collections and archives that have already been evaluated, followed by a second, much later step, for the unprocessed archives from one of the external depots. However, it must still be defined whether the latter will be done gradually as they are evaluated or all at once.
In the new building we will have three different climate zones: 6 degrees Celsius for the flexible negatives and slides, 10 degrees Celsius for the colour prints, and 17 degrees Celsius for black-and-white photography, glass plates, and early unique prints. In order to be able to transport the collections to the new archive rooms, they must first be separated according to material. This triage approach will also be used to optimize storage of the different formats. The previous alphabetical filing system will also be converted to a numerical filing system based on the acquisition date. As part of this project, an inventory will be taken so that it is clear what exactly is being moved. At the same time, however, the inventory requires that all of the objects from the collections that have not yet been classified and preserved – which have accumulated over countless exhibitions during the last 35 years – be identified and classified. This process of “tidying up” is enormously time consuming; not only must they be identified, but also their legal status must often be clarified at the same time. On the one hand, this detective work is exciting and we get to know our collections better. But on the other hand, it can be very frustrating to see how much has been left unexplained and unsorted.
A move will bring all the corpses to light, but also clearly shows how the nature of collection work has dramatically changed during this time. While legal issues were only marginally addressed at the end of the 20th century, today the possibilities of digital accessibility and communication make them central. At the beginning of the museum’s history, the focus was on exhibitions, as the museum had to establish its reputation. Numerous private photo collections were acquired, which are now a specific feature of the museum’s collections and an incredible source. However, the negatives, slides, and written archival materials that were acquired and thus fortunately preserved are difficult to exhibit and therefore were only stored and not catalogued. As a result, today the museum must deal with a great deal of unprotected, uncatalogued holdings. In contrast, the photographic prints that were acquired were often individually catalogued and preserved. In a museum spanning art photography and mass photography, a well-balanced system must be developed that accommodates the museum’s processing of individual objects, archival processing with hierarchical structures, and mass processing. Cataloguing and digitization projects are central so that negatives and slides can become more accessible. These projects are also needed in order to bring prints into the digital age, as well. In this context, in the future we want to use the digital possibilities of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.
The new building and the museum’s relocation plans have naturally aroused the interest of the media, and because the museum places a focus on its collections, we are being offered considerably more photo collections and archives – from individual photographs to entire collections of more than 100,000 objects. Each offer is evaluated through inquiries and, depending on the assessment, through personal inspections, and then shared with the acquisition committee. The decision is then relayed back to the offerors, and if the decision is positive, the legal issues are settled and the transport of the objects to the museum is organized. Then the processing phase begins, whereby this has the highest priority for small- and medium-sized acquisitions, so that we can communicate about the new arrivals. With the acquisition and evaluation of photographers’ personal archives, it is important to consider the photographers’ own rhythm and needs; most are at the end of their creative period and they are letting go of their life’s work, which is not always easy. It is important to establish a basis of trust in these cases. As the person responsible for the collection, this is a challenging and rewarding part of the work.
The purchase of works is also continuing, so that the market can be followed via trade fairs and auctions. As a cantonal museum that sees itself as a national and international player on the photography scene, however, our collection policy must strike a balance between local and international aspects. Insurance cover must also be adjusted for large or important collections. So there are also matters of insurance policy to consider, especially with regard to the move.
In addition to these core tasks of maintaining the collection, it must also be communicated and made accessible. This involves everything from reproduction and research requests to research for internal exhibitions, to collaborating on the concept for the new collection exhibition and the digital presentation of the collections.
A great challenge is bringing together the different rhythms: the assessment projects as well as the basic work of indexing, conservation, and digitization are tasks that require perseverance and continuous work. Enquiries and exhibition projects, on the other hand, demand short, intensive work phases. In addition, the visibility of the exhibition and evaluation projects varies greatly, as do their appreciation and financing possibilities. In this respect, the aim is to bring the collections and their maintenance even more out of the shadows.
Bearbeitete Bestände in den Archivräumen, Foto: Sammlungsteam, Musée de l’Elysée
Interview mit Sabine Weiss zur Vorbereitung der Übernahme, Foto: Nora Mathys
Führung zur Sammlung und den Umzugsvorbereitung, Foto: Étienne Francey
Neueingerichtete Arbeitsplätze für die Umzugsvorbereitungen, Foto: Mélanie Bétrisey