About#

The working group is part of ICOM Documentation (formerly CIDOC), one of ICOM’s 35 international committees. CIDOC supports the museum community by providing guidance on good practice and developments in museum documentation. Following updates to the ICOM statutes in 2023, all international committees are required to adopt and harmonize their bylaws, and working groups are now asked to present a working plan. CIDOC’s updated bylaws were approved during the 2025 AGM.

The Exhibition and Performance Documentation Working Group was officially approved by the CIDOC board at the 2015 Annual Conference in New Delhi. Its mandate is to investigate the central role of exhibition and performance art documentation for museums and related organizations, and to address issues concerning long-term preservation, access, and research.

Leadership:

  • Coordinator: Zoë Renaudie (Montréal, Canada)
  • Vice-coordinator: Alexandre Matos (Porto, Portugal)
  • Founding coordinator: Gabriel Moore Forell Bevilacqua (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil)

General Aims#

Our main goal is to provide guidelines to museum professionals on how to carry out exhibition and performance documentation.

The overall trajectory is: build together, think together, share with the world.

Three-Year Timeline:

2026: Administrative foundation, recruitment, and groundwork

  • Jan–Apr: Setting up email infrastructure and shared workspaces; first meetings; selection of goals
  • Apr–Jul: Three task force groups working in parallel:
    • Zotero Group: first draft of the shared bibliography on exhibition and performance documentation
    • Mapping Group: compile a list of relevant projects in museums and universities
    • Definitions Group: gather existing definitions of key terms
  • Jul–Nov: Bi-weekly meetings launched; each group publishes its first outputs
  • Dec: Website launch

2027: Internal discussion and reflection

  • Jan–Apr: Design an institutional diagnostic questionnaire on current documentation practices; conduct a metadata crosswalk across existing standards (Spectrum, CDWA, CCO, CONA, LIDO, CIDOC-CRM, CIDOC Guidelines, etc.)
  • Apr–Jul: Send the questionnaire; conduct individual or group outreach to museum contacts
  • Jul–Nov: Analyze gathered research data; identify data models specifically adapted to exhibition and performance documentation
  • Dec: Present and analyze results in a webinar

2027–2028: Sharing with the world

  • Jan–Jul: Share documentation strategies for preserving exhibitions and performances and ensuring future access
  • Jul–Nov: Organize a working group event to present findings and collectively define new objectives at the ICOM documentation Conference
  • Dec: Final report