Introduction: Sustaining care for performance

This introduction opens the anthology Performance: The Ethics and the Politics of Conservation and Care, volume II. The book builds upon the groundwork laid by its predecessor, volume I, which explored the intersection of performance, conservation, and care. Resulting from an interdisciplinary research project, “Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge,” both books take a deep dive into the complexities of preserving performance-based art, challenging conventional conservation norms and expanding the horizons of what can be conserved. Volume II continues this exploration, offering perspectives from various geographical, thematic, and philosophical angles. It explores ritual, music, community traditions, contemporary museum practices, and experimental art forms, presenting an innovative methodology for comprehending the potential of performance conservation within the domains of art, museums, and beyond. At the heart of this volume’s introduction lies the concept of ‘care ethics,’ which underscores both the pragmatic and emotional facets of care. Drawing inspiration from feminist care theorists like Virginia Held, Eva Feder Kittay, and Joan C. Tronto, the authors scrutinize care as a fundamental moral framework underpinning human interdependence and relationships with the world, and as a notion that stretches beyond artworks themselves to encompass living bodies, artists, performers, and communities. The introduction spotlights the disparities within the art world, where issues like low wages and the exploitation of museum staff are rampant. It calls for a comprehensive understanding of care that values and supports the labor of all museum stakeholders. The concept of ‘shared guardianship’ is explored as museums collaborate with external groups and individuals to care for their collections, nurturing diverse perspectives and expertise. The text also acknowledges the political dimension of care, as the selection of works for preservation involves choices that can either be inclusive or exclusive. It underscores the challenges faced by works from marginalized groups and those resistant to dominant art-historical narratives, highlighting that loss often occurs due to discrimination within historicization. The authors challenge the dominance of Western-centric perspectives in conservation and museum practices, advocating for a more inclusive and holistic approach to care that transcends binaries and embraces the responsibilities of care in human-decentered cosmologies.