From Post-Identity Discourse to Concepts of Communality and Participation in Contemporary Art
Convenors:
Benjamin Greenman, University of Essex. btgree@essex.ac.uk
Merav Yerushalmy, University of Essex. myerus@essex.ac.uk
The term ‘post-identity’ has been used to describe a general tendency in the 1990s to rethink questions of identity. It designates a shift from an analysis of social processes in which the subject is constituted to a theorisation of identity as an open process of iteration and deconstruction.
In discourses on art the question of identity has been articulated alongside such concepts as intersubjectivity and performativity. Interpretation itself has been conceptualised as a process of identity formation. The intensive debate around such issues in art history and cultural theory has spurred much criticism, especially with regard to its polarisation of the research field. In the past few years, however, there has been a notable fatigue with such concerns and a manifest desire, in both theory and practice, to find new critical approaches not only to the conceptualisation of the subject but also to that of larger social and political structures.
In recent debates there has been a growing emphasis on notions of communality and participation. A desire has been expressed to find renewed ways to speak of plurality – the ‘we’ – beyond the concept of identity. The performance of participation has been discussed as one potential way of producing open ended, fluctuating forms of communality. Similar concerns have also been voiced within the discourses of relational, dialogical, situational and other socially engaged art practices.
The session explores current concerns within both post-identity discourse and practices and theories of communality, pointing to broader questions about their relationship and the nature of a shift between the two.
Speakers:
Ignacio Estella Noriega (Universidad Carlos III)
BEYOND DEMOCRACY: Fluxus and the dilemmas of pluralism, individualism and ‘common front’
Katarzyna Kosmala (Heriot-Watt University)
Resisting identities and their utopias in new Europe
Silvia Casini (Queen’s University of Belfast)
Questioning MRI identities through curatorial practice
Toni Ross (University of New South Wales)
Models of Communality in the Art of Lucy Orta
George Lovett (Artist in Residence, Ayuntamiento de Huesca)
interCambiArquitectura (iCA): Relational Architecture?
Avant-Garde and cultures: art, design, cultural environment
May 17-19, 2007
Minsk, the Republic of Belarus
Hosted by the Arts Department & the Center of Visual Arts and Media of the State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University
In cooperation with:
National Commission of the Republic of Belarus for UNESCO
National Centre for Contemporary Art, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Moscow
Ambassade de France en Biélorussie
Botschaft der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Republik Belarus
British Embassy in the Republic of Belarus
Ambasciata d ‘Italia nella Repubblica di Belarus
Instytut Polski w Minsku
World ORT
Supported by the UNESCO Moscow Office for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation
May 17 (Thursday)
9:00 – participants’ registration
(Belarusian State University, Hall of the Rector’s Office Building, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
10:00 – Conference opening ceremony
(Belarusian State University, Rector’s Office Building, Conference hall, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
10:30-13:00 – Plenary session
Leonid Bazhanov (National Center for Contemporary Art, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Moscow) Avant-Garde as Phenomenon in the Art of the 20th century
Igor Dukhan (Arts Department and Center for Visual Arts, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) Avant-Garde and “Avant-Gardes” in Art and Design of the 20th Century
Jeffrey Andrew Barash (Universite de Picardie, Amiens) Art, Time, Memory: Aesthetic Sense in the Perspective of Contemporary Art
Christina Lodder (Head of the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, Edinburgh) Creating the New Man: Workers’ Clubs in the Soviet Union in the 1920s
13:00-14:00 – dinner
14:00-18:00 – Avant-Garde and variety of cultural expressions (in the context of ideas of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions)
Session 1. (Belarusian State University, Rector’s Office Building, Conference hall, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
Chairpersons: Christina Lodder, Alexander Renansky
Alexander Renansky (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University; Belarusian State University of Culture and Art, Minsk) Lev Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Avant-Garde
Stella Pelse (Institute of Art History, Latvian Academy of Art, Riga) From St. Petersburg to Berlin: Routs of Avant-Garde Influences in Latvian Thinking on (National) art (1910-1925)
Beata Elwich (Warsaw University, Warsaw) Staring at the Past: Modernistic Painting as a Key to Understand the Icon.
Olga Bazhenova (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) The Belarusian Icon and the Avant-Garde
Hermann Simon (Director of the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation, Berlin) Max Liebermann (1847-1935): German Painter and Berlin Jew
15:30-16:00 – coffee-break
Chana Schütz (New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation, Berlin) Lesser Ury (1861-1931): Jewish Artist – Painter of the Modern City
Evgeny Morozov (Institute of art studies, ethnography and folklor, Belarusian Academy of Sciences, Minsk) Architectural Heritage of Belarus of 1920-s: Problems of Attribution and Conservation
Nadezhda Usova (National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk) “Suprematist from Novoselky” Arkady Astapovich
Poster and on-line presentations:
Natalia Avtonomova (Director of the Museum of Private Collections, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow) Impersonal in Vassily Kandinsky art
Susanne Marten-Finnis (University of Portsmouth, School of Languages and Area Studies, Portsmouth) “Grusn fun Rusland”.?A Study of Migrating Ideologies in Post World War I Emigrant Art Journals: Warsaw – Berlin – Paris
Olga Finsler (Yanka Kupala Grodno State University, Grodno) Avant-Garde and the Intonational Space of Cultures
18:00- 20:00 – Reception on the occasion of the Conference hosted by the Belarusian State University and National Commission of the Republic of Belarus for UNESCO (Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
May 18 (Friday)
9:00 – 10:30 – Plenary session
(Belarusian State University, Rector’s Office Building, Conference hall, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
Chairpersons: Anatoly Greenberg, Irina Bagdamyan
Michael Levin (Israel Institute of Technology, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Ramat Gan) National Aspects of the International Style
Alicja Kuczynska (Warsaw University, Warsaw) Katarzyna Kobro – wizja rze?by otwartej
10:30 – 13:00 – Avant-Garde and variety of cultural expressions (in the context of ideas of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions)
Session 2
Chairpersons: Nadezhda Usova, Alicja Kuczynska
Irina Bagdamyan (National Gallery of Armenia, Erevan) The Influence of the New Art Trends of Early 20th Century on the Work of Armenian Painters of late 19th – 20th Centuries
Leonid Katsis (The Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow) Malevitch and Lissitzky: Vitebsk and Berlin
Vilma Gradinskaite (The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Vilnius) Parisian-Juwish Expressionism: Vilnius School of Drawing – École de Paris
Iurie Matei (Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts of the Republic of Moldova, President of the National art club “Minerva”) Concept of “Avant-Garde” in the Countries of the Transitional Economics
Natalya Rachkovskaya (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) Avant-Garde and Underground in the Art of Belarus in 1970 – 1980 (memories)
Dario Russo (University of Palermo) “Free Graphics” or “A question of impact”
Farid Abdullaev (Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art, Baku) Tendencies of Contemporary Arts in Azerbaijan
Poster and on-line presentations:
Tatyana Avdonina (Francisc Scorina Gomel State University, Gomel) The Sociacultural Pathology’s Art, or the Destruction of an Art Abolished
Anna Shestitko (Belarusian State University, Minsk) Avant-garde and Cross – cultural Dialog: Some Methodological Aspects.
Evgeniya Karizno (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) The early period of Chaim Soutine’s art: from Smilovichi to Paris
13:00-14:00 – dinner
14:00-15:30 – Discussion: “Avant-Garde, Cultural Heritage, Image of Environment ”
Moderators: Olga Bazhenova, Krystyna Gutowska
(Belarusian State University, Rector’s Office Building, Conference hall, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
Introduction into the discussion: Krystyna Gutowska (Warsaw Politechnical Institute, Warsaw) Emocjonalne, polityczne i spo?eczne uwarunkowania recepcji (i ochrony) dziedzictwa modernistycznej architektury we wspó?czesnej Warszawie.
Participants of the discussion: Ella Chmielewska, Vadim Glinnik, Vadim Popruga, Marina Kolodinskaya, Yulia Lisay
15:30-16:00 – coffee-break
16:00-17:30 – Discussion: “Avant-Garde and Environment: Avant-Garde Tendencies in Contemporary design”.
Moderator: Igor Gerasimenko
(Belarusian State University, Rector’s Office Building, Conference hall, Minsk, Bobruyskaya Str., 5 a)
Introduction into the discussion: Igor Gerasimenko (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) Esoteric Motives of Design
Participants of the discussion: Dmitry Sursky, Lev Agibalov, Elena Matrosova, Alexandr Chardymov, Olga Bugaenko, Olga Sakovetz, Alexandr Trusov
Poster and on-line presentations:
Alexandr Chardymov (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) Poetics of Space and the Theoretical Foundations of Ergonomics
19:00 –“Idea of Constructivism”: lecture and presentation of the recent writings of Professor Christina Lodder, and reception at the British Embassy (37, Karl Marx Street Minsk)
May 19 (Saturday)
10:00-12:00 – Avant-Garde and Virtual Spaces (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of BSU, Minsk, 96, Mayakovsky Str.)
Chairpersons: Igor Kashkurevich, Silvia Casini
Anatoly Greenberg (Arts Department, State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, Minsk) Avant-Garde and Virtual Areas
Ella Chmielewska (The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh) FLAT LUX! Cold War Neons: Modernity and the Metropolis
Silvia Casini (Queen’s University, Belfast) In Pursuit of that Obscure Object of Desire: Avant-Garde Cinema and the Venice Film Festival
Elina Usovskaya (Belarusian State University, Minsk) Mosaic Culture and Bricollage Thinking (on the Avant-garde of 1970 – 1990th)
12:00 –12:30 – coffee-break
12:30 – 14:00 – Art presentations and Discussions (Matvey Basov, Igor Kashkurevich, Olga Sazykina and others) Presentation of the memorial exposition “Space of Chaim Soutine”. Concluding discussion and closing ceremony.
Sightseeing tour round Minsk City