Posters, designer furniture, historical musical instruments: the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich houses over 500,000 objects, each requiring different attention and care. Richard Adler, conservator at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, is a preservation expert. But his work extends far beyond object care and repair. Adler and his team are responsible for protecting the Museum’s vast and culturally immensely valuable collection. They coordinate loans, ensure that objects travel safely to and arrive intact at exhibitions, and take the measures needed to prevent damage and decay. The collection is diverse not only in terms of content but also in terms of materials and fabrics, making the conservators’ work complex and requiring great expertise.
Part of the collection is also on display: the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich offers regular guided tours of its Schaudepot at the Toni-Areal: 2,000 “Collection Highlights” from the world of beautiful, useful and curious everyday objects are waiting to be discovered at the main building on Ausstellungsstrasse. The objects have a representative function, whether as testimonies of time or as outstanding examples of a certain technique or artistic movement. An object’s visibility also increases its need for restoration, for example, recreating an original colour or missing elements. Ultimately, every intervention, every decision made by the restorer is justified aesthetically as much as technically. Not only craftsmanship is required but also curatorial intuition.
There is something contradictory about restoration: it attempts to blur the traces of time on fabric, wood, paper, and somehow counteracts the natural ageing of objects. Richard Adler adds: “We realize that we are merely postponing decay.” For posters in particular, restoration and retouching are standard practice, as cracks, wrinkles, and abrasion occur quite quickly. Otherwise, the conservation team tends to exercise restraint. Adler and his staff assess an object’s condition and function to determine whether restoration is feasible and, if so, what kind. “There is virtually no by-the-book approach,” he explains. Whenever possible, an object’s original condition is preserved. As a rule, major aesthetic procedures are undertaken if they are also reversible. Adler’s position can be compared to that of a family doctor: he checks how an object is doing and then decides what treatment makes sense.
Photograph 1 Joachim Tielke, Viola da Gamba, Northern Germany, 1694. A special case: as part of a project with ZHdK’s Department of Music, the viola was taken off the shelf to perform a sonata by Telemann written especially for this instrument. This resulting changes to earlier restorations helped better approach the instrument’s original acoustic properties. Photograph: Umberto Romito
Photograph 2 A restorer retouches a poster. Photograph: Umberto Romito
Photograph 3 Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), Dressing table, designed 1915. Richard Adler inserts a piece of wood which he has made himself to close the missing hinged door in the table. The colour and gloss imitate the original. This simple yet effective approach preserves the aesthetic value of this item for posterity. Photograph: Umberto Romito
Photograph 4 Piero del Bondio, Puppets, 1970s. This collection of puppets is a new addition to the collection. New objects are first quarantined and checked for vermin before being housed in the Schaudepot. Photograph: Umberto Romito
Taking care of objects does not mean locking them away airtight. The objects housed at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich remain in contact with the outside world and yet want to be preserved to remain admired for as long as possible. Whether they are retouched, reconstructed or left unrestored, thought and care are called for in each case.
The collection is also the focus of a new exhibition. Right next to the Collection Highlights, Collection Insights – Seven Perspectives presents the collection from various thematic angles and shows how collecting, exhibiting and communicating in the museum are connected. One of the seven stations was curated by ZHdK students. – From 26 January to 1 December 2024 at Ausstellungsstrasse 60.