Ismail ÖZTÜRK1 / Vildan ÖMÜR2
(1Fine Arts Faculty, Narlidere- Izmir, Turkey / 2Fine Arts Institute, Narlidere- Izmir, Turkey)
A socioeconomic renewing process was started in the world along with the technological advances of the last quarter of the 20th century. The process named the information age is based on sharing informational values to all communities, and this has caused many important changes affecting community life. In the modern world, existing in your own culture is hard but very important. This is only possible when the communities have their own protection culture based on truthful information, appropriate for the requirements of the age, broad and qualitative. To keep the cultural values that have developed as a product of a process lived in time; the protection phenomenon must be considered and introduced as progressive. The essential aim in protection is to know what will be protected why and how.
Some of the traditional textiles are placed in museums and private collections but some of them are still held by families. For this reason, there are great importance of the recording, protecting and carrying traditional textiles to next generations. If the cultural product is damaged in any way, saving it with the minimum operation and loss of originality is only possible through a conservation team consisted of experts. However, providing a constant conservation-restoration team and laboratory in every place where textiles are present is very difficult. To build such an establishment, especially for museums and libraries under the responsibility of local authorities, requires both professional team and economical power. In this paper it’s argued that the alternative of these difficulties is a project which aims the establishing of a local conservation laboratory and forming of a conservation group with portable units. The project is prepared by basing Izmir as a pilot area which concerns all around Turkey. When the presence of historical and personal (those gained from the generations in families) samples is considered, it can be seen that thousands of traditional textile products that have not been yet recorded in inventories in Turkey. The employees of this suggested laboratory will both make an inventory research and present suggestions on the compliance of the environmental conditions suitable with the principals of conservation where the textiles are permanently or temporarily stored.
First, the portable station bounded to the mentioned local conservation laboratory will establish the communication with units that have textiles in need of conservation and restoration, then it will start the documentation and research the possibilities for training experts. In other words, the high priority of the center will be documentation and contribution to forming the staff that will be serving in the future. The practical and theoretical basis of this project will be formed by the educational textile products conservation and restoration laboratory that is present within The Dokuz Eylül University, Fine Arts Faculty, Traditional Turkish Arts Department.
Keywords: Conservation Laboratory, A Mobile Team, Traditional Textiles