dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

of consumer goods. The durability of materials was
not a criterion because it was neither a need nor a
demand from consumers. The low costs associated
with innovative features were key to the success
of an industrial product; this fundamental rule
of consumerism emerged in the late 19 th century.
During the 20 th century, the marketing of new
materials based on advances in chemistry would
increase, and industry would produce artefacts
that found their place in museum collections, and
sometimes even the machinery and production tools
themselves became cultural goods.
Industrial objects
The industrial art artefacts
During the 19 th century, industry gained recognition
and pride; it was testimony to progress and a
positive development of society. France witnessed
the founding of the “Conservatoire des Arts et
Métiers” - a museum devoted to the industry, the
“École centrale des Arts et Manufactures” - a high
school for engineers, and the “Salon des Arts et de
l’Industrie”- a show room for industrial development.
Industrial production was synonymous with a
combination of quantity and quality as allowed by
automation. However, this appreciative perception
of mass-produced objects would decline during
the 20 th century as mass production often became
synonymous with cheap, low-quality artefacts. In
fact, the 20 th century saw the marketing of all sorts
of new objects, mass-produced to meet various
applications: telephones, phonographs, radios,
televisions, and other household appliances. And, if
during the 19 th century industry based its growth on
innovations from the field of chemistry, it added,
during the first half of the 20 th century, contributions
from the field of physics, particularly electricity
and electromagnetism. All of these innovative
mass-produced objects became an essential and
significant part of daily life and of the consumer
environment. These industrial artefacts were not
only limited to a utilitarian function; they would
incorporate an aesthetic function, clearly claimed for
design objects, which would give them a place not
only in museums of science and technology but also
in decorative art museums. The growing status of
Keynote speech
industrial objects in society gradually conveyed new
values that influenced artists themselves and have
changed our view of art. Art was not merely the sum
of what an artist created and his know-how, but also
co-opted other objects which could be considered
as art. Thus, Marcel Duchamp’s works have
brought to art collections “ready-made” industrial
objects such as the “Bottle Holders” (1914) and the
”Fountain” (1917). Artists not only re-appropriated
such industrial artefacts, but also sought to emulate
the industrial production of artworks by generating
multiple copies, as exemplified by Andy Warhol’s
studio, aptly named “The Factory.” Artefacts or
installation art, where some parts may be updated
or replaced by similar industrial artefacts according
to the wishes of the artist, were included in museum
collections.
Multiple versus single
The field of art was subjected to profound change
influenced by industrial production. The essay by
Walter Benjamin (8) entitled “The Work of Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” reflected
these new questions and concerns regarding an art
that was no longer the result of a unique creative
process. Multiplicity is an attribute of contemporary
works of art, as Yannick Maignien explains: “the
contemporaneity of works of art is one founded on
their mass-production, their collective perception
and ownership.” (9) Benjamin’s point was that with
the introduction of the lens-based media of film
and photography, the criteria of authenticity and
uniqueness, which had been attached to artworks
for centuries, started to fade. Yet the concept of
multiplicity associated with art is not really new, as
Gérard Genette (10) pointed out; it has existed for
centuries in the production of bronzes, engravings,
and prints. Such multiplicity did not change the
recognition and status of those works of art; it would
only influence the market value.
However, if a work of art can be embodied in several
identical copies, copies are never fully identical. Any
individual piece, even if mass-produced, is never
completely the same as the others: it will always
be possible to identify minute differences in the
structure that characterize each artefact. Two objects
thermoformed from the same mould probably will
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