Writing Central European Art History

The program was offered to the Academy of Fine arts in Vienna for special presentations. It brings fresh inputs on academic art history and the perception on modernism and post-modernism in the former Eastern Europe territory.

“The lectures will focus on theoretical and methodological questions in order to confront very different approaches proposed by scholars
coming from different experiences, with the central focus remaining on Central and Southern East European art. The main and common point of departure will be a relationship between East and West in which the East would not be recognized as the (real) Other (as for example Asian culture), but rather as the close-Other or not-the-real-Other. It applies both to the art production (ie. the subject of art historical analysis)—since Central and Southern East European art has been done in the light of the Western one—as well as analytical language, considering our methods have also been ‘borrowed’ from the Western theories. For scholars who are working on Central and Southern East European art history, particularly that of modern and contemporary, it is quite obvious that this sort of writing should differ from art history of other regions, particularly from a Western art historical narrative. On the other hand, to construct Central and Southern East European art history without Western references seems to be impossible. Thus, this sort of scholarship is somehow ‘hanging’ between Western models,
understood both as historical influences over regional art and as methods coming from the master narrative, which is of course Western by origins.”
Piotr Piotrowski

All lectures are in English language
and open to the public.

Monday, 24 November, 2008

15.30
Introduction by Marina Grzinic

15.45
Lecture by Misko Suvakovic, Professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

Title: Politics and Art after the fall of the Berlin Wall

The author will point to the crucial changes that happened in society, philosophy and art after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and more precisely, after the end of the cold war division of the world. The era of postmodern social, cultural and artistic plurality was turned into a period of globalization and of restructuring of the social, political, cultural and artistic local-global relations. These processes are marked in art by a fundamental change in the media of artistic representation and expression, converting new media practices into the mainstream art of this epoch.

17.15 - 17.45
Discussion

18.15
Lecture by Vojtech Lahoda, Deputy Director of the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. University Professor at the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Title: Regional Cubism? How to write on Cubism in East Central Europe

The author's aim is to concentrate on the issue of Cubism outside Paris, especially in the region usually called East Central Europe. The discussion will deal with the question whether it is still valid to write about a homogeneous western born "Cubism", or whether we should think about different local and regional "Cubisms" within the territory of Central and Eastern Europe. The author proposes the term Regional Cubism for Cubist hybridization east of Paris and stresses international aspects of Cubist regionalism.

20.00 -20.30
Discussion

Tuesday, 25 November, 2008

9.30
Lecture by  Ljiljana Blagojevic, Associate Professor Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Title: Post-socialist Cities: Contested Modernism

The presentation  explores spatiality of processes in the contemporary transformation of cities which have been constructed in the second half of the twentieth century as new modern socialist cities. The course will also focus on the impact of sociopolitical and economic post-socialist/communist transition on architecture and urbanism. The case study of New Belgrade
(Serbia) will be specifically presented.

11.00-11.30
Discussion

12.00
Lecture by Mart Kalm

Mart Kalm, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Art and Culture Estonian Academy of Art, Tallinn, Estonia

Title: What is Estonian Architecture?

This presentation will discuss the establishment and formation of the Estonian architecture culture during the 20th century. From Finnish architects serving Estonian society before the first Estonian architects emerged to the Baltic-German and Estonian architects in inter-war Estonia-the course will explore Estonian interpretations of traditionalism and modernism.
From there, the architecture of Soviet Estonia, with eyes in West but organization and rules from Moscow, is followed by the post-communist Estonian architecture –  and is now dissolved in globalization?

13.30-14.00
Discussion

15.30
Lecture by Edit András

Edit András, Senior Research Fellow, Research Institute for Art History of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

Title: One-way traffic, two-way traffic or a dead end? Dynamism of Contemporary Art Discourse in the East-West Relation

The author intends to shed light upon the shifts, gaps and discrepancies between mainstream art history writing and its Central European local, national variants focusing mostly on
the period after the political changes. It would explore burning issues of what could be absorbed into the main debate, what remains invisible from outside, and how the border
patrolling mechanism operates. Case-studies would be given of contemporary Hungarian artists like Little Warsaw, Andreas Fogarasi, Kriszta Nagy, Emese Benzcúr etc.

17.00 to 17.30
Discussion

18.00 End Notes

Thursday, 8 January, 2009

15.30 Introduction in II second final part

15.45
Lecture by Jan Bakos

17.00 to 17.30
Discussion

18.00
Lecture by Piotr Piotrowski

19.30-20.00
Discussion

20.00 End notes