Art Handler: Wrapped Up in Work
Libération, September 6, 2015
Since the 28th of August Fondazione Prada in Milan has become the stage for a ballet that is usually performed far from the public eye. For nearly two weeks visitors have been able to witness the deinstalling of the inaugural exhibition Serial Classic from corridors built around the glass cube. This installation brings together miniature reproductions of classical sculptures, including Satyrs, Apollos, and discus throwers lent by the Louvre, the Prado and The Metropolitan Museum. Their hyper meticulous wrapping is presented here as a spectacle of gentle handsâthose of the art handlers and exhibition managers who generally work in the shadows, hiding their traces and allowing us to forget the chain of gestures and steps that contribute to the appearance of a work on the walls and floors of museums and galleries. The director of the Fondazione Prada, Salvatore Settis, explains to us that the initiative is an âessential part of the exhibition itself,â since it allows for reflection on the process of installing as such, to observe the landscape created by the architect Rem Koolhaas as part of the set-design and to see âhow the important and delicate sculptures are crated for shipment.â
With greater frequency the big museums give over to the temptation to tease us, staging the installation of exhibitions as images on Twitter or as films available on their websites, for marketing reasons as much as for curatorial procedure (since the preview has itself become part of the show). The result is a profusion of images of wooden crates, works under plastic, people in white gloves (most often pictured from behind) filling our visual field. Even the auction houses do this now, distributing reproductions of young and handsome âart handlers, "as the Anglo Saxons call those who handle art with their hands, in the process of transporting frames, in order to reinforceâas if it were still necessaryâthe precious status of the works in circulation. As the infinite tentacles of the global art market propel more and more works into circulation, more art-handlers are always needed to install, uninstall, and transport them.
If, here or there, you have been able to piece together a picture of the plethora of assistants required for the production of contemporary works (Jeff Koonsâ studio has 130, count them!), the assistants required for the development of pieces that are so often monumental in scale, you have probably noticed how they have been presented as sycophants. But that perception is quickly changing: now you can find Tumblr accounts dedicated to them, including the very fine Installator (with around 144, 000 followers) that gathers archival images from the initial stages of exhibitions. There is also the magazine Art Handler, which this year released its first volume, number zero, in an edition of 1000. There was even a calendar depicting sexy art handlers made for 2015. On a humorous note, there was an Art Handling Olympics held in New York in 2010, featuring timed crating and hanging competitions under the directives of a sadistic German commissar ("Nein! Nein! Higher!â).
âIf one pays attention to art handlers now itâs because the huge, expensive, very technical pieces produced in contemporary art compel us to realize that the artist works in a network of individual hands,â says Christoph Lang, the rector of F+F School for Art and Design in Zurich, who organized the first symposium dedicated to the question at Migros Museum in Zurich, in 2014. âTheir work has become news because it is linked to this strange contradiction that has become more and more pervasive in the realm of art: extremely expensive pieces produced and transported by people who work in an invisible manner.â
If, up until now, people have not talked about art handlers often enough itâs because, to paraphrase Christoph Lang, this activityâa way for young artists to generate an income more stable than their own practiceâremains a little âhumiliating,â or in any case less sexy than that of the assistant. âYes, itâs a small milieu: in some peoplesâ eyes itâs best to not work as an art handler for too long,â says Sylvain Rousseau, who worked as one for years before he could dedicate himself to his own artistic practice. âThere is a particular way you are perceived: when a gallerist sees you as the handler of other artistsâ work they no longer see you as an artist.â The sculptor feels that art handling is âa kind of springboardâ into the art world, ânot necessarily well paid, around 10 euro an hour, but a great way to become acquainted with that world, a way of getting over your inhibitions, and becoming initiated in it.â Handling the work of others also provides the means by which artists can return to their own work.
âWith the type of work that we show, we must rely on preparators more and more,â explains Medriadek Caraes. He manages the projects that take place beyond the walls of Kamel Mennour in Paris, supervising the installing and deinstalling at fairs, expos, viewings at the houses of collectors. He indicates that the gallery, just like other big Parisian galleries (Gagosian, Thaddaeus RopacâŠ) employs a little team of full-time art handlers, and regularly calls upon the services of external handlers for monumental projects, such as Lee Ufan in Versailles, but rarely do they rely on businesses specializing in art handling, like Crown, Mtec, or LP Art. âThey never send the same workers, so we rely on our own contacts.â Often these are people in their thirties who have a fine-arts education and the sensitivity required to handle the work of others. âThey must be meticulous, because the works are often fragileâbe they neon or historical paintings; they must be quick, seeing that we have to spend less time for an art fair than hanging a museum show.â
According to one bemused connoisseur at the Louvre âthere are 10 people in white gloves to unhang a painting that only two people will touchâ (in fact, the museum informs us, there are around twenty preparators for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions). The needs of the big institutions vary. At the Centre Pompidou-Metz, the coordinator Alexandre Chevalier explains that they rely on at least 8 people for hanging work and 8 people for wrapping it (the markets are divided into sectors that do not interfere with one another). Their needs are dictated by the works they exhibit: âthe field is so vast, installing video is quite different from working with raw scrap iron.â
Outside of the fairs and other big art event, the Palais de Tokyo is without a doubt the largest employer of art handlers in France. The nature of some projects (15000 tires piled for the Eternal Flame by Thomas Hirschorn, in 2014, and an even greater number of liters of water for Acquaalta by CĂ©leste Boursier-Mougenot, on view until September 13) takes three to four weeks to mount and often requires unusual talents (for example, a specialist in pool liners for Acquaalta). Philippe Verly, the exhibition coordinator for the past three years, finds this challenge quite exciting. In his estimation the median renumeration for art handlers is around 215 euro a day, all expenses included. According to one art handler he made between â5000 and 6000 euro a month, but with many nights off, which is quite good pay for so little time.â
For Britton Bertran, the creator of the Tumblr page Installator and a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, paying homage to this labour is a way of âhumanizingâ the works of art that people see hanging in museums where they are encumbered with the glaze of preciousness. And, certainly, to âcelebrate art handlers, who deserve our respect.â Clynton Lowry, who created Art Handler in New York, did so in order to reveal what remains hidden in the art world, notably the work of art handlers in private collections, at collectorsâ houses, or in other dealings in the very opaque secondary market. âAt times certain artists, such as Rachel Harrison or Louise Lawler, have approached this subject from their own angle,â he adds. âBut I find it helpful to leave the exhibition space to speak about it.â The profession is also an inexhaustible source of gossip and anecdotes, which will guarantee a readership for his future magazine. For example, he could start by creating profiles of contemporary artists according to their level of cordiality with art handlers. Daniel Buren can rest assured, receiving universal praise from every art handler one speaks to. Thatâs not the case for everyone.
Franck-Dumas, Elisabeth. (2015). Art Handler: Job Emballant [Art Handler: Wrapped Up in Work (Jeffrey Stuker, Trans.)]. Paris, France: Libération. http://next.liberation.fr/arts/2015/09/06/art-handler-job-emballant_1376871
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