Collections, Collectors, Collectionism. Origins and Future of Cinema Memory (#45)

Thus there is in the life of a collector a dialectical tension between the poles of disorder and order. Naturally, his existence is tied to many other things as well… also, to a relationship to objects which does not emphasize their functional, utilitarian value-that is, their usefulness-but studies and loves them as the scene, the stage, of their fate. The most profound enchantment for the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are foxed ... The period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership-for a true collector the whole background of an item ads up to a magic encyclopedia whose quintessence is the fate of his object. In this circumscribed area, then, it may be surmised how the great physiognomists-and collectors are the physiognimists of the world of objects-turn into interpreters of fate.

 

                          Walter Benjamin, Unpacking My Library. A talk about Book Collecting[1] 

 

This call for essays is part of the initiatives foreseen by the PRIN 2022 ‘MOV.I.E. Film Museums and Audiovisual Heritage: Historical Perspectives, Valorisation Strategies, Contemporary Ecosystems’, with the intention of soliciting contributions that take into consideration in particular the role of collectors and collecting, both with reference to the origin and formation of film collections (films, machines and technology, extra-filmic documents, memorabilia etc.), and with reference to the processes of patrimonialisation of cinema itself, in relation to the institution and history of film libraries, museums and archives, against the background of the theoretical-methodological issues that this history raises. ), as well as in reference to the processes of patrimonialisation of cinema itself, in relation to the establishment and history of film libraries, museums and archives, against the backdrop of the theoretical-methodological questions that this history invokes.

The study of the practices of collecting (from its origins to the present day), the relationship between the private and public dimensions, between the market and the acquisition policies of the bodies in charge of the preservation and enhancement of the film heritage, will constitute a scenario in which to place in-depth studies that allow us to focus on the one hand on the issues concerning the progressive enhancement of a heritage that is gradually asking to be recognised, therefore preserved, protected and conserved, and on the other to be shared, exhibited, shown and communicated.

In a recent essay dedicated to the issue, Donata Pesenti Campagnoni[2] outlines the adventurous history that has seen forgotten objects and documents, fortunately recovered by some far-sighted pioneering figure, go from being ‘discards’ to ‘semiofori’, echoing terms proposed by Krzisztof Pomian in his studies on collecting, from the private and personal, sometimes idiosyncratic and instinctive dimension, to that of objects/value that can be marketed or institutionalised. Pesenti Campagnoni well points out some of the aporias and contradictions or problematicities that concern a history and a path that crosses further issues, in the light of the more general and complex process of patrimonialisation and musealisation of cinema, a process that today reckons with the most up-to-date key words of any museological or heritage-related discourse. But the heritage of the cinema, and the question/issue of collecting, interrogate and test these key words in a decisive way, bringing with it all the paradox and strength of a still recent recognition, compared to the cultural heritage traditionally associated with the idea of museology and patrimonialisation, demanding a perspective capable of accommodating a very varied typology of fetishes, relics, testimonies, documents, works (films), which change their status in time and space, and of finding their legitimacy, connections, and value bearing, both in the economic and cultural sense.

The benjaminian quotation placed in the exergue, in its almost poetic description of the collector and his attitudes and peculiarities, actually points precisely to some of the fundamental issues that concern any discourse on collecting. The tension between order and disorder, which implies or evokes questions related to the criteria on which the collection is based and constructed, the idea of a possible selection, reorganisation, cataloguing, etc. ; the destiny of objects, beyond their functional value or use; the polarity between crystallisation and that same destiny that we have also recalled with Pesenti Campagnoni; the magic encyclopaedia that a collection, in its own internal logic, activates, based on the intuition of soothsayers and seers who have collected discards capable of becoming semiophors, as has often happened to the film collections at the basis of many of the most important contemporary museum or archive institutions.

Benjamin's words would be enough to suggest several avenues for problematising the issue (or issues) at the heart of this call. However, it may be useful to try to relate the concepts and considerations set out so far to the more systematic definitions of ‘Collection’ and ‘Collectionism/Collecting’ proposed by ICOM (International Council of Museums) in the recent Dictionary of Museology edited by François Mairesse: “A collection is a gathering of tangible or intangible objects, which and individual or an establishment has assembled on the basis of some common characteristic, classified, selected and preserved outside the circuit of their initial use, and sometimes displayed to an audience”; “Collectionism defines a set of human activities focused on the acquisition (through purchase, collection, excavation, trade or theft) of objects with the aim of forming a collection. These activities (prospecting, planning, research and acquisition) may be conducted both by individuals (collectors) and institutions (museums, libraries, archives, databases)”[3]. These definitions do not exclude the subjective or even pathological element possibly connected to the practice of collecting: “The concept of ‘collectionism’ may be used generally to describe an activity practised by a large portion of humanity, related to the collector's personality or the institution's acquisition policy, but also pejoratively, to a pathology. ‘Collectionism’ is described as collecting objects, some of which may have no value, compulsively and obsessively (in which case the term ‘collectionitis’, and in a psychiatric setting, ‘compulsive hoarding’ or ‘collectomania’, may be used)” [4].

Of course, in the dictionary published by ICOM, the entries relating to the conceptual horizon we are referring to in this call are complicated in a complex set and subset of other entries (including “Collection (Public/Private)”, “Collection Archivist” “Collection Policy”, “Collection(s) Management” etc.), to which we refer for a more general reference map.

This call relates these issues to the field of cinema, soliciting essays with a more general historiographical or theoretical-methodological approach, as well as case studies to update the state of reflection, addressing scholars and scholars, but also heads of archives and collections, conservators/conservators, etc.

 

Lines of interest:

• Collecting practices and collectors from the origins to today
• Film/cinema collections, museums and film libraries
• Reorganisation, cataloguing, preservation and protection
• Film/Film
• Machines and Technology
• Documents and production objects
• Ephemera/Memorabilia
• Acquisition and market policies
• Public/private
• Digitisation
• Sustainability
• Valorisation, exhibition
• Film memory and collective memory
• Fandom/Cinephilia

 

Send the proposal to giulia.carluccio@unito.it, s.rimini@unict.it and eden@unito.it in the form of a short abstract (maximum 2000 characters including spaces, in Italian and English) accompanied by a brief biographical note of the author/author (maximum 500 characters including spaces). The deadline for submission of proposals is November 30th, 2024; if accepted, the deadline for delivery of the full essay will be January 31st, 2025.

 

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Reference Bibliography

The following bibliography is built according to essentiality criteria, specifically referring to issues that selectively concern the topic of collecting, not only film, leaving aside a more general bibliography referring to museology and film archives. For those who wish, the curators can provide a more exhaustive bibliography elaborated for the already mentioned PRIN 2022 project MOV.I.E. Film museums and audiovisual heritage: historical perspectives, valorisation strategies, contemporary ecosystems/ MOV.I.E. - Moving Images Exhibitions. Film museums, audiovisual heritage: historical perspectives, strategies of enhancement and contemporary ecosystems.

 

Appadurai Arjun, The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986

 

Baudrillard Jean, Il Sistema degli oggetti (1968), trad. it. S. Esposito, Bompiani, Milano 2003

 

Belk Russell W., Collecting as luxury consumption: Some effects on individuals and households, in “Journal of Economic Psychology”, 16, 1995, pp. 477–490.

 

Benjamin Walter, Estraggo la mia biblioteca dalle casse. Discorso sul collezionismo (1931), trad. it. G. Moly Feo, Luni Editrice, Milano 2023

 

Bjarkman Kim, To Have and to Hold. The Video Collector’s Relationship with an Ethereal Medium, in “TELEVISION & NEW MEDIA”, Vol. 5 No. 3, August 2004, pp. 217–246

 

Borde Raymond, Une autre histoire du cinema, Privat, Toulose 2022

 

Boym Svetlana, The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, NewYork 2001

 

Carluccio Giulia, Stefania Rimini (a cura di), Musei del cinema e patrimonio audiovisivo. Prospettive a confronto, Kaplan, Torino 2024

 

Cati Alice, De Rosa Miriam (a cura di), I tesori dell'effimero. Wunderkammer, creazioni filmiche e il potere magico dell'immagine-oggetto, in “Comunicazioni sociali”, 2010, pp. 289-307

 

Comand Mariapia, Mariani Andrea (a cura di), Ephemera. Scrapbooks, fan mail e diari delle spettatrici nell’Italia del Regime, Marsilio, Venezia 2019

 

Desjardins Mary, Ephemeral Culture/eBay Culture. Film Collectibles and Fan Investments, in Ken Hillis, Michael Petit, Nathan Scott Epley (eds.) Everyday eBay, Routledge, New York 2006

 

De Toni Elisabetta, L’immaginario del collezionismo, Sestante, Bergamo 2010

 

Diaconu Mădălina, Collectors, Collecting and Non-collectibles Between Everyday Aesthetics and Aestheticism, in “Espes. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics” 11 (1), 2021, pp. 134-150

 

Druick Zoë, Cammaer, Gerda, Cinephemera: Archives, Ephemeral Cinema, and New Screen Histories in Canada, McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP, 2014

 

Eco Umberto, La vertigine della lista, Bompiani, Milano 2009

 

Elsner John, Cardinal Roger, Cultures of Collecting, Reaktion Books, 1994

 

Fischer Lucy (ed.), Recollecting Collecting: A Film and Media Perspective, Wayne State University Press 2023

 

Fontanarossa Raffaella, Collezionisti e musei. Una storia culturale, Einaudi, Torino 2022

 

Franchi Franca (a cura di), L’immaginario degli oggetti, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2007

 

Fusillo Massimo, Feticci. Letteratura, cinema, arti visive, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012

 

Paul Gansky, Severed Objects: Spellbound, Archives, Exhibitions, and Film's Material History, in “Film History”, Vol. 25, No. 3 (2013), pp. 126-148

 

Geraghty Lincoln, Cult Collectors:Nostalgia, Fandom and Collecting Popular Culture, Routledge, London-New York 2014

 

Giannachi Gabriella, Archiviare tutto. Una mappatura del quotidiano (2016), trad. it. E. Dalgo, F. Iannelli, Treccani, Roma 2021

 

Gracy Karen F., The Evolution and Integration of Moving Image Preservation Work into Cultural Heritage Institutions, in “Information & Culture”, 2013, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2013, pp. 368-389

 

Griazioli Elio, La collezione come forma d'arte, Johan & Levi Editore, Milano 2014

 

Grazioli Elio, Amedeo Martegani, Gianluigi Ricuperati, M. Brusatin, A. Anedda, Il collezionismo o il mondo come voluttà e dissimulazione, A+MBookstore, 2006

 

Habib André, Pelletier Louis, Sirois-Trahan jean-Pierre (sous la direction de), Le Cinéma dans l’oeil du collectionneur, Presses Université de Montréal 2023

 

Hills Matthew, Fan Cultures Routledge, London 2003

 

Kirste Lynne, Collective Effort: Archiving LGBT Moving Images, in “Cinema Journal”, Vol. 46, No. 3, Spring, 2007, pp. 134-140

 

Knell Simon J., Museums and a Future of Collecting, Ashgate 2004

 

Lenk Sabine, Collections on Display: Exhibiting Artifacts in a Film Museum, with Pride, in “Film History”, 2006, Vol. 18, No. 3, Film Museums 2006, pp. 319-325

 

MacDonald Sharon, Collecting Practices, in “A Companion to Museum Studies”, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010, pp. 81-95

 

Martin Paul, Popular Collecting and the Everyday Self: The Reinvention of Museums (New edition), Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., London 2001

 

McKIinley Mark B., The Psychology of Collecting: Everybody Collects Something, YES You Do, International Society of Talking Clock Collectors, 2015

 

McKinney Justin, From Ephemera to Art: The Birth of Film Preservation and the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, in “Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America”, Volume 33, Number 2, 2014

 

Muensterberger Werner, Collecting. Un Unruly Passion, Princeton Legacy Library, Princeton 1994

 

Moore Paul S., Ephemera as Medium: The Afterlife of Lost Film, in “The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists” Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2016, pp. 134-139, University of Minnesota Press

 

Pearce Susan M., Collecting in Contemporary Practice, Sage Publications, CA 1997

 

Pezzotta Alberto, Cinefilia, trash e mutazioni mediatiche, Mimesis Edizioni, Milano 2012

 

Pomian Krzysztof, Collezione, in Enciclopedia, vol. III, Einaudi, Torino 1978, pp.330-364

 

Pomian Krzysztof, Collezionisti, amatori e curiosi (1987), Il Saggiatore, Milano 1989

 

Pamuk Orhan, L’innocenza degli oggetti (2012), trad. It. B. La Rosa Salim, Einaudi, Torino 2012

 

Rinehart Richard, Ippolito, Jon, Re-Collection. Art, New Media, and Social Memory, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London 2014

 

Rolland Frédéric, Les collections privées de films de cinema en support argentique en France, Art et Histoire de l’Art, Université de Versailles-Saint Quentin en Yvelines, 2009 (Thèse, Open Acces HAL, https://hal.science/tel-03764486 )

 

Taylor Iain A., Dr. Carter Oliver(eds.), Media Materialities: Form, Format, and Ephemeral Meaning, in BCMCR “New Directions in Media and Cultural Research”, Intellect Books, 2023

 

Waldman Diane, Collage, Assemblage and the Found Objet, in Collage: Critical Views, H.N. Abrams, K. Hoffman (eds.), UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor 1989

 

Wendorf Richard, The Literature of Collecting, Oak Knoll Press, Boston, New Castle, Boston 2008

 

Wickham Phil, Scrapbooks, soap dishes and screen dreams: ephemera, everyday life and cinema history, in “New Review of Film and Television Studies”, Volume 8, 2010 - Issue 3: Researching Film and Cinema History

 

Williamson Colin, Driskel Dana, Reclaiming “Lost” Films: The Paper Print Fragment Collection and the American Film Company, in “The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists”, Vol. 16, No. 1 Spring 2016, pp. 125-134

 

 

 

[1] Walter Benjamin, Unpacking My Library . A Talk about Book Collecting (1930-1931), tr. Harry Zhon, Schocken Books, New York1969

[2] Donata Pesenti Campagnoni, In origine erano scarti, in G. Carluccio, S. Rimini (a cura di), Musei del cinema e patrimonio audiovisivo. Prospettive a confronto, Kaplan, Torino 2024

 

[3] François Mairesse (ed.), Dictionary of Museology, ICOM, Routledge, London and New York 2023, pp.61-62 e p. 71.

[4] Id., p.71