Conferences and Courses

Croatian Conservation Institute organized a seminar that brought together conservators and conservators-restorers, titled Exercising Co-Decision Making 1: Restoration of Wooden Polychrome Sculpture and held on December 16th, 2016 at the Ludbreg Conservation Centre. Presented at the seminar were conservation and restoration projects that served as platform for discussion and exchange of experiences among experts from the Departments of Conservation of the Ministry of Culture and the Croatian Conservation Institute, with the aim of fostering collaboration in the protection of cultural heritage.

Talks were given on both the conservation and restoration work itself and the decision-making process which is a part of it, thereby presenting the knowledge and efforts put into the conservation of each individual cultural good. Emphasis was put on the results of conservation and restoration, but also on the importance of including the local community in the protection and conservation of cultural goods.

The seminar started off with an introductory note given by Dr. Tajana Pleše, acting director of the Croatian Conservation Institute, who extended a welcome and thank you note to the conservators and conservators-restorers who accepted the invitation and would through their talks try to initiate a dialogue and find joint solutions for cultural heritage issues.

Davor Trupković, assistant to the Minister of Culture and Ranka Saračević-Würth, head of Sector for the Protection of Cultural Heritage thanked the organizers of the seminar whose focus is on the key issues that conservators and restorers encounter on a daily basis. Special emphasis was placed on the collaboration of Departments of Conservation and conservators-restorers, starting from the very planning of work on cultural goods to the systematic efforts put into improving, maintaining and continually surveying individual objects of heritage.

Introductory talk was given by Dr. Ksenija Škarić, consultant conservator-restorer, who pointed out examples from practice as well as general issues that arise in the course of conservation and restoration. Iva Koci, senior conservator-restorer, focused in her talk on wood as a support for polychrome sculpture. The first part of the seminar also featured presentations and concrete examples by Katarina Brkljačić-Netopil, consultant conservator for movable cultural goods and wall paintings (Department of Conservation in Krapina), who gave a talk titled Gorjani Sutlanski, Chapel of St. Jacob in Očura; Damira Tolić, senior consultant conservator for movable cultural goods (Department of Conservation in Zadar), who discussed the situation when both the research and the diagnostics point to – dismantling; and  Vesna Pascuttini-Juraga, senior consultant conservator (Department of Conservation in Varaždin), who talked about St. John on Gorica Lepoglavska.

Re-polychromies and overpaints were the focus of senior conservator-restorer Vanesa Gjini’s talk, while Danela Vujanić, senior consultant conservator for immovable cultural goods (Department of Conservation in Požega, Office in Pakrac), presented the work on wooden furnishings of the parish church in Pakrac. Retouch was the subject of the talk given by Anđelko Pedišić, M.A., senior conservator-restorer, while gilding was analysed by senior conservator-restorer Marijana Galović, M.A. The altar retable in the church of St. Michael in Kliševo was highlighted as one of the pointers to how to solve problems of microclimatic conditions, in the talk given by Božena Popić-Kurtela, M.A., senior consultant conservator for movable cultural goods (Department of Conservation in Dubrovnik).

After the presentations were given – of the research, scope of work, dynamics of execution and complete examples of how injuries were fixed – the final discussion ensued and guidelines were agreed for further efforts, in order to share experiences and establish a more dynamic dialogue.

Seminar programme