Introduction

International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle

Introduction

Barbro Stribolt, Drottningholm Theatre Museum

Documentation et Art de l'Acteur
Records and Images of the Art of the Performer

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle
International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts
18ème Congrès International, Stockholm 3-7 septembre 1990
18th International Congress, Stockholm 3-7 September 1990
Editor: Barbro Stribolt (Drottningholms Teatermuseum). Stockholm : 1992, p. 7-8

The Congress

SIBMAS' eighteenth World Congress took place in Stockholm on 3rd-7th September 1990. It was hosted and arranged by the Drottningholm Theatre Museum, but the actual Congress was held at Nationalmuseum. The Royal Swedish Academy of Music also made facilities available for the Congress; the Council meeting, for example, was held there on Sunday, 2nd September.

It was funding support from the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, the National Council for Cultural Affairs, the Swedish Institute and the Friends of Drottningholm Theatre which made it possible for the Drottningholm Theatre Museum, a relatively small institution, to undertake the mammoth task of arranging an international congress.

Taking part in the Congress were 93 delegates from 17 countries. They included no fewer than nine from the then Soviet Union, representing the republics of Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Russia and the Ukraine.

Mr Bengt Göransson, Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, opened the Congress on Monday 3rd September. SIBMAS' President, Oskar Pausch, then gave a welcoming address with a special word of appreciation to the invited lecturers. Professor Per Bjurström, Stockholm, Professor William Green, New York, Madame Marie Françoise Christout, Paris and Mr Erik Näslund, Director of the Dance Museum, Stockholm.

These lecturers opened the Congress proceedings, which then continued in the form of workshops and committees.

The Congress ended with a General Assembly on Friday, 7th September.

As is traditional at SIBMAS' congresses, Wednesday was devoted entirely to an excursion and social activity. Participants were able to choose between visiting Gripsholm or Drottningholm, and the two destinations attracted more or less equal numbers. One group left by boat for Mariefred to visit Gripsholm Castle, where the theatre fitted out by Gustaf III in 1784 was the main attraction. Dr Ulf G. Johnsson (of the National Art Collections) guided the group, together with Märta Ankarswärd and Karin Widegren from the Drottningholm Theatre Museum.

The other group travelled by bus to Drottningholm, where they first visited the scenery store for a study of the Drottningholm Theatre's 18th century decorations. Next came a round tour of the Theatre Museum's permanent exhibition (in Duke Carl's Pavilion) and the Court Theatre. From the stage of Drottningholm Theatre, Court Singer Elisabeth Söderström described the sensation of performing on a deep, sloping stage surrounded by Italian operatic machinery, and some of the demands which this entails.

The Drottningholm group was headed by Dr Barbro Stribolt, assisted by Mrs Inger Mattsson (of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music). The day, which turned out to be a long one, ended with a tour of Drottningholm Palace and the Chinese Pavilion under the expert guidance of First Surveyor Bo Vahlne (of the Royal Collections).

After the Congress had ended on 7th September, many delegates took part that evening in a further excursion, this time to Ulriksdal Palace, on the outskirts of Stockholm. There they visited the newly opened Orangery Museum, viewing its collection of 18th and 19th century sculptures by torchlight. The evening ended in the Ulriksdal Court Theatre, Confidencen, established in 1754, in a converted stable. Kjerstin Dellert (General Manager of Confidencen Rediviva) told the story of the theatre. It is thanks to her that this historic auditorium, unused since the early 19th century, has taken on a new lease of life.

This Congress would not have been possible without the dedicated work of the Theatre Museum staff (both permanent and temporary). The information side was headed by Christina Nygren, alternately assisted by Märta Ankarswärd, Karin Engerfelt, Isa Hammergren, Karin Widegren and Wenche Stribolt.

The Publication

Prior to the Congress, with its chosen theme of Records and Images of the Art of the Performer, the following approaches to the subject were suggested in a Call for Papers:

The Means of Documentation of the Performer and His Stage
The Interpretation of Theatrical Material
The Use of Theatrical Material by the Acting Profession
Collecting and Preserving Memorabilia

The Secretariat divided the 24 papers received into five sections, under the following headings:

"Dance" (section 1), "Historical" (section 2), "Method" (section 3), "Memorabilia" (section 4), and "Modern" (section 5).

In publishing the papers we have chosen to retain the subdivisions thus employed at the Congress, while realising that the boundaries between the different sections are fluid, that the subject fields frequently overlap and that the definition of sections was also dictated to some extent by purely practical considerations, such as limitations of time.

"Method" includes papers mostly concerned with describing the method or approach employed when collecting, codifying, preserving and using material documenting the actor's achievement.

Several papers deal with documentation in connection with a historic event or unique occurrence. Depending on whether that event occurred before or after 1900, the papers have been placed in section 2 quot;Historical") or section 5 ("Modern").

Papers coming under the heading "Dance" could also have been included under different headings, but we decided that everything dealing, one way or another, with dance would be grouped together.

The Theatre Museum staff also made vital contributions to the printing of the Congress proceedings. Most of the typing was done by Irene Geuken and large parts of the material were proof-read by Eva Lundgren.

Grants towards the cost of printing were generously provided by the Friends of Drottningholm Theatre, and this publication was also partly funded by revenue from the Agne Beijer Memorial Fund (which is administered by the Friends of Drottningholm Theatre). Sincere thanks are offered to all those who, in the various ways which have now been mentioned, helped to make the Congress such a great success.

Stockholm, February 1992

URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas90/sto_1.html

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