About artemak
Contemporary art is characterised by a continual change in the application of artistic techniques and procedures. Furthermore, the range of materials used has expanded particularly since the middle of the 20th century. The separation of the techniques and materials from the artistic expression is therefore often difficult. Sometimes they themselves become influential aspects of artistic work. Due to the constant experimentation in the art production of the 20th and 21st centuries, new approaches must be continuously developed for art technological and conservation research and practice. Interviews with artists about the creation, presentation and preservation of their artworks are recognised and used by the restorers as a common part of the work and research field in contemporary art. In this context, a large number of professional initiatives, projects and networks has been established in Europe and the USA over the past 30 years.
Erich Gantzert-Castrillo developed this approach to documentation and research in the german-speaking area with his Archiv für Techniken und Arbeitsmaterialien zeitgenössischer Künstler, Band 1 (Archive for techniques and materials of contemporary artists, Volume 1) which was published in book form in 1979. The archive was continued online from 2011 to 2014 with the creation of a wiki-based system for indexing interview texts and the artemak.de website based on it.
Erich Gantzert-Castrillo transferred the artemak website as a donation to the Dresden University of fine Arts in 2019. The framework for this is provided by the ESF-funded research project artemak+X – Techniques and Materials of modern and contemporary art, which has been running since 2018. The website was published in 2021 with a new function and design and has been operated by the Dresden University of Fine Arts ever since.
