The Museum Interface: Registrar Edith Michelsen
Edith Michelsen and Regina Gelbert’s office space is located in structure between both the administrative and exhibition buildings. This architectural ‘in-between’ corresponds well with the work they do. They are the interface between the exhibition objects and the people creating and installing the exhibition. They accompany and document every movement that an object makes during the entire exhibition process, whether while the artwork is underway from Paris to Berlin, stored in the museum’s temporary depot, being unpacked and installed in the exhibition space, or being removed for return to the lender.
‘My name is Edith Michelsen. I work in the German Historical Museum as registrar. The job title in German is the same as the original term in English, because there is no satisfactory German translation.’
Q. What exactly is a registrar?
‘A registrar coordinates all movements of an object as it enters or leaves the museum. The two of us, Ms Gelbert and I, are the registrars for the temporary exhibitions, meaning that we are responsible for objects entering the museum and our colleague over in the archives building is responsible for all objects leaving the DHM.’
Q. What does a registrar’s normal work consist of?
‘We attend to the incoming objects for the temporary exhibitions, which means that we work on a project basis. There is a project, an exhibition subject, and that is our focus. In general, we are responsible for updating the database. We also write loan enquiries once it has been decided which objects the museum wishes to have. We prepare the loan enquiries or check the loan agreements sent by other institutions. We take care of insurance and coordinate transportation and courier escorts. We discuss the packaging of the objects being sent to the DHM and are responsible for the initial receipt of objects at the museum. We keep lists and are always consulting with the exhibition architects, conservators, and the curators, of course.
- Waiting for a delivery
- Stored objects
- Thermo-hygrograph at the German Historical Museum
Q. Your work on the project begins as soon as list of objects is completed. What exactly do you then do then?
‘The work usually begins sooner, but in this case a project manager (Ms Sid Otmane) or registrar had already been assigned. If that is not the case, we will start with the loan enquiries ourselves. We begin to receive the positive or negative replies, which we then enter into the databases. The data also includes the lenders’ conditions for the loans.’
Q. Is there a particular anecdote from the Desire for Freedom project that you remember especially well?
‘Yes, we had an object from Hungary, from Budapest. It was an installation by Miklós Erdély, called The Eye of Reason. And we weren’t really able to find out where the object was or what the best method of transport was. Whether it needed a case, whether it had to be flown, and what it would cost the museum; well in the end it was all handled by our project partner, the Collegium Hungaricum, and Ms Sid Otmane could just walk around the corner and pick up the object from them at their venue. It was a very simple and economical solution. (she laughs)
Q. What did you particularly like about the work on this project? What was the nicest part?
‘That it was an art exhibition this time. Otherwise, our exhibitions are planned around anniversaries or historical events. And this time the objects were in the foreground, so art in Europe since 1945. And it really was objects that we otherwise never have in the German Historical Museum. And th artists—who had accompanied their artworks or were here to install them. That was new and interesting for us.
Q. And what was the most difficult part of this project?
‘Well, there were a lot of difficulties. The difficult part of the installation, for instance, was really the number of object, the different lenders from all over Europe, the many couriers we had to coordinate, and laying out a very clear approach at the beginning so everything could move forward. It was difficult to coordinate the many different shipments from abroad, to make sure that all of the objects from a particular country were included, so there would only be one shipment coming from Italy, one from England, and one from France, although there were very different lenders.
Q. What do you do once the object has arrived at the museum? Are the objects unpacked immediately?
‘That varies. Sometimes the objects are in climate cases. That is mainly the paintings and they must remain in the cases for 24 hours after arrival, before they are allowed to be opened. A climate case is a wooden box designed to keep its interior environment stable for a certain period, so the temperature in the case does not fluctuate greatly. The case has to ‘acclimatise’ for 24 hours at the new location before it can be opened; it has to adjust to the climate conditions in the museum.
Ms Gelbert, the other registrar at the museum, adds:
‘The point is to limit these fluctuations. The environment in a museum usually has a certain temperature and humidity. Before being packed, the climate case is brought into the museum, opened, and given time to acclimate, to take on the museum climate. The painting is then packed in the case and shipped, in the hope that the climatic conditions from the sending museum will remain in the case during shipment. Then the case is unpacked here at the DHM in a similar climate, because all museums have standardised conditions for exhibiting paintings. Problems occur when there are large fluctuations. A layer or flake of paint can loosen.’
What we didn’t ask:
How she actually became a registrar.
Where is her work place at the DHM:
In the structure connecting the administration and the Pei buildings.
Which work in the exhibition has she grown the most fond of:
There were so many great objects from so many well-known and famous artists, that is hard to say. But perhaps the two paintings by Opalka—the ones from his 1 — ∞ series, where we chose 2 269 683– 2 289 861. That is really a beautiful work depicting the transitory nature of things by just adding one to the last digit. And you almost perceive it as a graphic rather than a painting made up of numbers. It loses its representational quality and becomes more graphical. Especially if you step back from it.’
When does she feel the most free:
I thought about this a lot. It is difficult to say. But I think it is when I am free from internal and external constraints, as much as that is even possible. And that is often outside, outside in natural surroundings.
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