A Chat with Benedetta Bodo di Albaretto - Founder of Project Marta

Do you ever wonder how to make sure your artwork survives the test of time? Conservation protects our heritage, preserves legacy, and ultimately, saves our past for generations to come. We are proud to keep partnering with Project Marta, a leading art conservation platform from Turin, Italy. 

Project Marta is a service that provides collectors, artists, and gallerists with a technical data document that contains comprehensive knowledge about conservation methodologies.

We sat down with Founder Benedetta Bodo di Albaretto to get to know more about her journey in the conservation field and what brought her to create Project Marta.

Hi Benedetta, when and why was Project Marta developed?

Project Marta - Monitoring Art Archive came to life by combining different paths and experiences: on one hand the academic side - I studied conservation and diagnostics of modern and contemporary art - and on the other hand the professional side - I worked as a gallery assistant, as a curator of small contemporary exhibitions and as an editor for magazines in the field of art and culture.

I found myself almost by chance to be an interlocutor for several artists on issues concerning the conservation, transport, packaging and display of artworks.  Artists had no other references to consult in order to make informed choices regarding the safety of their works, production and conservation.

I was very surprised to witness this, to the point that I decided to make it the case study of my thesis. I started to interview artists, experts in the sector, collectors to understand if there was a lack of communication between professionals in the field and if so, in which area, to then study an effective way to offer a useful and long-lasting solution. 

After months of work and interviews with people in the field, the first draft of the technical data sheet took shape, designed to accompany a work of art over time, designed so that it was easy to fill in and consult at any time. Getting to the final version of the technical data sheet and formalising the service I was trying to offer, which is now called Project Marta, took me 7 years.

Can you tell us what is your role at Project Marta, what you focus on and why you think artists should consider conservation upon creating their works? What are the benefits of using Project Marta?

I am the founder of Project Marta, a service officially launched in January 2017 during Artefiera, Bologna (Italy). My background taught me to focus on the compositional aspects of a work of art, but my passion brings me to try to understand its meaning and nature at the core, so as not to distort its message in any way.

I think that artists should not worry about using durable materials in the creative and production phase, because they risk being influenced by this aspect which may interfere with the final outcome. I believe they should take time to reflect on the nature of their work, what they envision for the future, and which fundamental aspects must be protected and restored in case of accidental damage or deterioration over time.

It is important that artists leave information on this, to prevent the work from being irreparably damaged or being dealt with incorrectly at a later time.

The technical interview I conduct serves precisely to probe in detail some aspects that otherwise would not be taken into consideration until conservation problems arise, making it "too late" to repair.

The advantage for artists to use the service provided by Project Marta, is that it provides clear and precise information on the work, it contains practical indications that will allow the potential collector to better manage his/her purchase, and which provides conservators and operators a document to consult in case regarding maintenance/transport/set-up.

In addition, Project Marta "educates" artists about the importance of having a clear archiving process that will be crucial for the study and understanding of his/her work.

How is the collaboration with Tagsmart adding value to Project Marta?

The collaboration with Tagsmart was created in 2019, to be able to certify the works of the artists we collaborate with. The digital unique ID allows to identify the work forever throughout time, it is linked to a physical document that certifies the originality of the work, whose specifications are traced by the Project Marta data sheet to preserve the work over time. To be able to complete a document - our technical data sheet - designed specifically for the protection of the work of a device that certifies its authenticity, perfectly closes the loop of a complete document to protect the work overtime. 

Do you ever work with artists when they are creating works, to help them choose better and long-lasting materials?

Project Marta intervenes when the work is finished. It often happens that we provide advice on how to best package the work, how to set-up an exhibition and on how to hang the works correctly.. we usually do not advice on the type of materials an artists should use, and it never happened to us so far to do so or suggesting to change a type of material because of its unsuitability. 

Can you name some of the exciting artists you are working with, what they are doing and how Project Marta contributes to safeguard their works overtime?

We have been working with many Italian and international artists, investigating different techniques and styles. I think of Aron Demetz, a sculptor that uses wood in his creations - charred, covered with resin, sanded with machinery - like Loris Cecchini - with his stainless steel modules - but certainly among the artists to whom we have been been helping the most I can mention Alberto Tadiello , whose work 25L, owned by the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection in Turin, suffered damage after a few years due to the nature of the material that made up the bell of the sound installation.

Being an iron element, built by the artist by assembling several pieces of sheet metal and connecting them to a PVC pipe connected to a compressor, this bell was damaged by an oxidation of the iron itself (rust), probably triggered by having moved the work without protective gloves. The oily substances naturally present on the fingertips (the fingerprints on the edges of the bell were recognizable) activated the degenerative process which, had it not been inhibited, would have continued to affect all the iron elements. Tadiello had consciously decided not to treat the metal surface with a protective coating; he was interested in the change that would occur over time. He hadn't considered the speed with which it would happen, nor that shipping in humid environments would accelerate this corrosive process. We analyzed the situation together, and he decided to apply a protective product both for this work and for the following ones created with similar materials.

Can you tell us how you work with galleries and museums? How do they approach Project Marta?

At the moment it is a bit of a sore point, because in Italy the response of galleries and institutions towards the preservation of art - not only of Project Marta - is taking time. A concrete example is as follows: in 2017, in addition to Project Marta - to be precise 6 months later - the Pacta (protocol for the authenticity, care and protection of contemporary art) was presented by Mibact (Ministry of Culture), mandatory document that integrates the acquisition of works by living artists by local institutions, to facilitate the collection of information for the protection of the works themselves (same principle as Project Marta, with a different approach). Five years later, we carried out a survey among artists and institutions to investigate the knowledge and use of Pacta (as well as Project Marta) on the national territory, and the results were quite disheartening. There is a lot of work to be done to change the general mentality, at the moment the galleries are interested in the service mostly because the artists or collectors ask for it or support it. This does not mean that there is no interest at all, but little willingness to invest economically in conservation if not in the face of a safe return (sale of the work which the Project Marta card is combined with).

How can artists reach out to Project Marta and what are the criteria, if any, for them in order to be eligible for the creation of the technical conservation data sheet?

Project Marta is accessible to any artist who wants to archive his/her work, as well as to any gallery or client who wants an in-depth study of a particular work, as long as it is possible to contact the artist for an interview. Through our portal www.projectmarta.com you can fill out the form in the contact section for information and ask for an appointment, or you can reach out to us directly through social media- facebook, instagram, linkedin - we will get in touch as soon as possible!

Is there anything else you’d like to add or any relevant advice you have for Tagsmart artists?

Keep in mind that prevention is better than cure. Taking time when the situation is not stressful - or when there have been no accidents with the work in question - means facing the topic serenely and clearly. Furthermore, it is a question of working to prevent the work from being damaged and losing value, both economically and beyond. Speaking especially to artists and gallery owners, Project Marta is a service that underlines an ever-growing professionalism in this kind of market.

Can you tell us about your recent collaboration with Polposter?

We have recently started a new very interesting partnership with Polposter an independent art project that took shape after gathering ideas with creative friends among a graphic designer, a conceptual artist and an art restorer. The project’s name comes from a way of saying in the Tuscany area “sape' dove dorme 'r pòrpo” which is used to denote great shrewdness and skill in identifying fruitful and profitable opportunities - not always ethically flawless - borrowed from the fisherman's ability to hunt the octopus in his lair. Inspired by this typical phrase of the territory, the creators of the project have designed an octopus as a symbol of the will to escape the stereotypes entangled (in fact) in the "network", and have started a brand that offers the public products halfway between art and the design, different from the mainstream present on the net.In fact, Polpost_er presents a new type of graphics, made in limited edition, created by a group of designers and artists who, to date, have not yet understood where the octopus goes to sleep! The goal is simple, to make quality works accessible and therefore affordable at reasonable prices, which stand out from the stereotypical offer on the network, currently, on the site, there are about a hundred original graphic proposals differentiated by themes. The collaboration with Project Marta was born with the intention of equipping the files produced by the artists for Polpost_er with a blockchain, so that the buyer has the possibility to purchase the file in NFT, thus also protecting the ownership of the digital work.