e­conservation

the online magazine No. 19, April 2011

 REVIEWS

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF E.C.C.O.

Review by Rui Bordalo

Barcelona, Spain
April 4‐5, 2011

Organiser:
E.C.C.O., The European Confederation of Conservator‐Restorers' Organisations
http://www.ecco‐eu.org/

E.C.C.O., the European Confederation of Conser‐

vator‐Restorers' Organisations, is commemorat‐
ing its 20th anniversary. Since it’s foundation in
1991, E.C.C.O. has had a strong impact on European
policies for the protection and preservation of
cultural heritage, working to achieve legal recog‐
nition of conservator‐restorers and promoting a
high level of training in this discipline. The con‐
federation is seen by other international partners
as a role model to be followed. At the moment, it
unites 22 associations from 20 European countries,
representing more than 5000 professional con‐
servator‐restorers.
The commemoration of its 20th anniversary took
place in Barcelona, Spain, in the last 4th and 5th
of April, on the occasion of the President’s Meet‐
ing and General Assembly. The President’s meet‐
ing is a biannual meeting where all the Presidents
of the member associations of E.C.C.O. get together
and meet with the E.C.C.O. committee to discuss
about aims and objectives to be achieved by the
organisation. However, this time all the founding
members were invited to attend the anniversary
and to commemorate the founding of the organ‐
isation.
The meeting took place in the XVIII century Pati
Manning building, just next to the Centre of Con‐
A view from the conference hall.
temporary Culture of Barcelona. The impeccable
local organisation was merit of Agnès Gall‐Orlik
from Grup Tècnic, a Catalonian association of con‐
servator‐restorers. As an aside note, it should be
mentioned that Barcelona is part of the Environ‐
ment Committee of Eurocities, which gathers a
group of 34 cities that promote environmental
awareness. This meant, for example, that every
plastic item normally used in conferences was
replaced by wood or paper‐based alternatives,
more environmentally friendly. It would be great
if we would see this more often in conferences.
The day started with a welcoming message from
Mr. Joan Pluma, General Director of Cultural Her‐
itage, representing the Catalan Ministry of Cul‐
ture. Next, Monica Martelli‐Castaldi, President of
E.C.C.O., welcomed the participants and presented

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REVIEWS
A short meeting of the E.C.C.O. Committee members.
the founding members and the previous E.C.C.O.
Presidents. Only a few could not be present and
those who are no longer with us were fondly re‐
called.
After the opening, a session on the history of the
confederation started with short presentations
by Nathalie Ravanel, from the Associazione Res‐
tauratori d'Italia (ARI) and former Vice‐President
of E.C.C.O., and Pierre Masson, from the Belgium
Association Professionelle des Conservateurs‐
Restaurateurs d'Oeuvres d'Art (APROA‐BRK) and
former President of E.C.C.O.. These short presen‐
tations were followed by interventions by Carole
Milner, from Association des Restaurateurs d'Art
et d'Archquéologie de Formation Universitaire
(AARAFU) and former Deputy Secretary, Gerlinde
Tautschnig, also from the Italian ARI and former
President of E.C.C.O., and other founding members
and former Presidents who recalled the early years
of E.C.C.O. Stéphane Pennec, founding member
from France, presented “Conservation‐Restora‐
tion of Cultural Heritage: Don’t worry, it’s get‐
ting worse!” which came as a refreshing frontal
view about the regression that the field is having
in some countries. Ylva Dahnsjö, from the National
Heritage (UK), closed the session speaking about
“The changed context for conservation and in‐
formation about UK PACR accreditation system”.
10
After the coffee‐break, a session focused on the
Competences of the profession took place. The
first lecturer was Susan Corr, General Secretary
of E.C.C.O. and delegate from the Institute for
the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works in
Ireland (ICHAWI), who presented the most recent
publication of E.C.C.O.: “Competences for the
Profession and Practice of Conservation‐Restor‐
ation”. This document was developed by E.C.C.O.
in connection with the European Qualifications
Framework (EQF) foreseen in the Recommenda‐
tion of the European Parliament and of the Coun‐
cil of April 23, 2008 on the establishment of the
European Qualifications Framework for lifelong
learning. This document defines the competences
required to enter the profession of Conservator‐
restorer. Next was Jeremy Hutchings, Deputy Sec‐
retary of E.C.C.O. and delegate from the Nordic
Association of Conservators ‐ Norwegian Branch
(Nordisk Konservatorforbund, den Norske Seks‐
jonen, NKF‐N) to present the implementation of
these competences in the conservation programme
at the University of Oslo. The structure of the
course (post‐Bologna process) of this university
is quite original, allowing the students to choose
different career paths, not strictly in conservation
but also conservation‐related ones, according to
the several competences they acquire. The follow‐
ing presentation was done by Barbara Davidson,
E.C.C.O. Committee member and delegate from
the Chamber of Restorers in Slovakia (Komora
Reštaurátorov, KR). Slovakia is from the very few
countries, if not the only one, that has a Cham‐
ber of Restorers, recognized by the government,
allowing a better regulation of the profession. In
her presentation, Barbara gave an example of the
EQF implementation at the national level and
about the specific legislative framework of the
country. Wolfgang Baatz, new President of the
European Network for Conservation‐Restoration
Education (ENCoRE), presented “Conservation‐
restoration education: EQF and the Universities”,
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A view of the conference hall during the presentations.
focused on the perspective of the universities con‐
cerning EQF and the lifelong learning issue. Closing
the session, Grellan Rourke, President of ICHAWI,
spoke on “Competences and Accreditation” where
he made a summary of the experience on accredit‐
ation in Ireland and what it has represented for
the members of their association.
After a short moment for questions from the public,
Dr. Miklós Szentkirályi and Dr. István Bona, from the
Association of the Hungarian Restorers (Magyar
Restaurátorok Egyesülete, MRE) which is also com‐
memorating now its 20th anniversary, presented the
history of their association, and several legislative
problems of laws on the protection of cultural prop‐
erty in Hungary, in a presentation titled “Changing
Legislation about Conservation‐Restoration of Cul‐
tural Property in Hungary”. Then Tomás Lupták, from
the Slovakian Komora Reštaurátorov (KR), spoke
“About the Law on Services on Internal Market and
Application of Exclusivity”. In Slovakia, conservation
is a regulated profession and the implementation of
European directives created several situations that,
fortunately, the chamber was able to resolve.
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REVIEWS
After a typical Mediterranean and eco‐friendly
lunch, the afternoon was dedicated to short pres‐
entations by Professional Bodies and Institutions.
The afternoon session was started by Véronique
Milande, President of the Fédération Française
des Conservateurs/Restaurateurs (FFCR), with
“FFCR is desperately looking for public”. As our
profession is sometimes distorted in the public
view by the media, the speech focused on the
public perception of conservator‐restorers and
the experience FFCR has had to enlighten both the
public and the media about the reality of our field.
Once the meeting was taking place in Spain, next
a series of associations, members and non‐mem‐
bers of E.C.C.O., were invited to address the audi‐
ence. In “Catalonia Today: 2 associations, One
future”, Agnès Gall‐Ortlic, from Grup Tècnic (GT),
and Voravit Roonthiva, President of Associació de
Conservadors‐Restauradors de Catalunya (ARCC),
announced the merge of the two professional as‐
sociations in Catalonia, Spain. The merge was
welcomed but news on the problematic Spanish
situation and about the recent dissolution of
11
REVIEWS
E.C.C.O.’s former member ACRACV, a Valencia based
association, saddened the audience. Then was
the turn of Gema Campo, also from GT, to speak
on the “Motives for becoming E.C.C.O. member
in the 90s and current relevance of E.C.C.O.”. As
a long existing association, GT was present in the
moments when the creation of a confederation
was discussed for the first time and later created.
The past and present importance of E.C.C.O. was
also discussed, for Europe but also for Spain and
Catalonia, as well as the documentation that was
delivered through the years by E.C.C.O., a true
milestone for the definition of the profession.
Afterwards, Carmen Perez Garcia, Managing Di‐
rector of the Valencian Institute for Conservation
and Restoration of Cultural Heritage (IVCR), in‐
troduced the audience to the history and struc‐
ture of the institute. The next talk was made by
Marco Moreno, from Asociación de Alumnos y Ex‐
alumnos de la Escuela Superior de Conservación y
Restauración de Bienes Culturales de Bienes Cultu‐
rales (AESCROM) in Madrid, who presented the
association, but also the particularities of the
training in conservation in Spain.
Brigitte Esser, from Associazione Restauratori‐
Conservatori Alto Adige (VRKS‐ARCA), a regional
association based in South Tyrol (Italy), spoke
about the long history of the association and the
specificity of that Italian region, and also how
advantageous and important has been the mem‐
bership of the association in E.C.C.O.. Jana Šubic
Prislan, from the Slovenian Society of Conservator‐
Restorers (Društvo restavratorjev Slovenije, DRS),
which the next day was accepted as new member
of E.C.C.O., was the next speaker. Founded in 1993,
the association reborn in 1997 and has now 283
members. Although it may seem that some pres‐
entations, year after year, are just the explanation
on how the associations were formed and the par‐
ticularities of their national ways, these are in fact
the most interesting facts to divulge as one can
12
Volker Schaible, President of the Association of Restorers
(Verband der Restauratoren, VDR), speaking about the
situation in Germany.
learn about the variety of the realities in this field.
This is the case of DRS, a very active association,
organizing on a permanent basis trips, confer‐
ences, workshops and even a professional award.
For sure, it is an example for other organizations
to follow.
Stefan Belishki, Committee member and delegate
of the Association of Conservator‐restorers of
Bulgaria (ARBBG), informed the audience about
a turn of situation for the profession in Bulgaria,
more particularly, about the legal changes that
have occurred. In 2009, a new law on the protec‐
tion of cultural heritage was enacted. However,
the conservator‐restorer profession is not prop‐
erly regulated by the law. There are texts that
pretend to regulate the conservation practice
but they are not in accordance with E.C.C.O.’s
guidelines and in fact might even allow unquali‐
fied persons to practice. The lobbying of the as‐
sociation has been very active proposing several
changes but with few results. Nevertheless, they
were able to, at least, reduce the risk of malprac‐
tice. Another problem that was discussed was the
lack of job opportunities that conservator‐restorers
are confronted with in Bulgaria.
After a well needed coffee‐break, it was the turn
of Ingrid Louise Flatval, President of NKF‐N to
speak about “The Situation in Norway”. The asso‐
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ciation has gone through several alterations due
to the size of the country, the bad economy and
internal reorganisation, among other factors. Sev‐
eral ways of dealing with these problems and din‐
amizing the associations were presented. Karen
Borchersen, from the Nordic Association of Conser‐
vators ‐ Danish Branch (Nordisk Konservatorfor‐
bund, Den Danske Afdeling, NKF‐DK) spoke about
the status and the future of the organisation. One
of the main concerns was to rejuvenate the board,
to bring new blood and new ideas, once their mem‐
bers have been there for many years. The recent
merge of Copenhagen’s School of Conservation
with other schools and the problems that have
risen was also discussed.
Jaap van der Burg, Vice‐President of E.C.C.O. and
delegate of Restauratoren Nederland (RN), spoke
on behalf of RN’s President Clara von Waldthausen
who could not attend the meeting. Jaap mentioned
the fact that RN commemorates its 5th anniver‐
Group photo of the participants to the E.C.C.O. 20th anniversary.
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REVIEWS
sary and made a short summary of the history of
the association, which resulted from the merge of
other associations. Volker Schaible, President of
the Association of Restorers (Verband der Restaur‐
atoren, VDR) gave an amusing and lively present‐
ation focused on “The Situation in Germany”, that
is a federal country, which means that more dif‐
ferent regional laws on cultural heritage apply.
The talk focused on the history of VDR and how
they are approaching such diversity of laws con‐
cerning conservation and the protection of cul‐
tural heritage.
Finally, the last intervention was made by Karin
von Lerber, from the Association Suisse de Con‐
servation et Restauration (SKR/SCR), who talked
about “The Situation in Switzerland”. Karin showed
how challenging the management of conservation
can be in a country with 4 schools teaching conser‐
vation and 27 states (with 27 different legislations)
and an association that gathers over 500 members.
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REVIEWS

Afterwards, there was a round‐table discussion

moderated by Grellan Rourke focused on Europe‐
wide issues arising from the meeting and network‐
ing between European professional bodies and
related institutions.

The second day was fully dedicated to the General

Assembly during which several internal issues were
discussed. Among these, can be highlighted the
efforts that the working groups are making con‐
cerning the European Recommendations in the
Council of Europe, the European Qualifications
Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF) and the
European Committee for Standardization (CEN).
Two associations – from Slovenia and Malta – were
welcomed as new members. Although these meet‐
ings are generally not open to the public, there
were several national and international observers
invited in the occasion of the Presidents meeting
and anniversary of E.C.C.O.

The two days meeting, with its warm atmosphere,

made the attendees happy to meet so many old
friends and colleagues. At the end, the commem‐
oration of the 20th anniversary of E.C.C.O. was a
success, not only for the high quality participation
and the vivid discussions but also for the positive
feedback that the founding members gave on
E.C.C.O. and how much it has accomplished in the
last 20 years.

Photos by: David Aguilella‐Cueco

RUI BORDALO
Conservator‐restorer

Rui Bordalo, PhD, is a board member of the Portu‐

guese Association of Conservator‐Restorers (ARP)
and a Committee member of the European Confed‐
eration of Conservator‐Restorers' Organisations
(E.C.C.O.) since 2005.

14 e‐conser vation
 No. 19, April 2011 LICENCE

ISSN: 1646‐9283

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