With Vito Acconci, Judith Albert, René Bauermeister, Edith Flückiger, Terry Fox, Jochen Gerz, Susanne Hofer, Tatjana Marusic, Sladjan Nedeljkovic, Nils Nova, Miri Segal, Alex Silber, Smith/Stewart, Beat Streuli and others

The collection of the Museum of Art Lucerne consists of some 3,500 individual pieces, covering every field from Medieval panel painting to works of video art described as ‘new media’. Video made its entrance in Lucerne in the mid-1970s. The first tapes in the collection of this artistic form, now numbering about fifty titles, were acquired in 1983.

It will be impossible to preserve these early video tapes from the pioneering age in the Museum of Art’s collection in the long term. Firstly, the mechanical qualities of the tapes are changing, and secondly it is impossible to find replacement parts for players in the appropriate formats. In the near future it will become impossible to play the tapes on original players.

Consequently the question arises of how these artworks can be safeguarded. The most obvious possibility is that they will be transferred to a current format and safely backed up on to a new data carrier which will then be stored under ideal archive conditions.

In ‘Collection Lab: Video’, the Museum of Art Lucerne will examine the video art in its own collection, through various sub-projects and from an academic perspective, and present the individual steps in the process, in an accessible form, in a series of individual chapters.