Historical Views
Asynchronous Session
The Border as Abyss: Sculpting Negativity in the Global Village View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Martin Ruiz Mendoza
This paper offers a critical exploration of Shibboleth, a 548-foot-long crack sculpted at Doris Salcedo’s workshop in Bogotá and exhibited at London’s Tate Modern in 2007. The first part of the presentation analyzes how Salcedo articulates a critique of modernity by aesthetically hinting at its dark side, which the artist associates with the pervasiveness of exclusion, racism, and xenophobia in contemporary Western societies. By revisiting Bauman (1997), I suggest that, since those traits are in fact constitutive of the modern State, Shibboleth can be interpreted as a critique of the modern project itself. The second part explores Salcedo’s vindication of Rilke’s modest and yet powerful definition of works of art as nothing more, nor less, than “strangely silent and patient things that stand around in all their otherness” (On Completing the Circle 37). The paper concludes with a reflection about the way in which Salcedo approaches artistic creation as an ever-unfinished attempt to trace the scars of history in contemporary societies.
The Importance of History in Arts and Cultural Management: Proposing a New Research Stream in Arts and Cultural Management Scholarship View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ximena Varela
Most studies of Arts Management organization focus on contemporary cases, organizations, and institutions from the past sixty years. In the United States, the formal, academic field of study in Arts Management goes only as far back as the 1950s and 1960s. When organizational and institutional history before that is examined, if at all, it is usually in relatively hazy and abstract terms. This paper proposes that deeper historical analysis of Arts Management is essential to the field, including practice (audience engagement; fundraising for the arts; government and patronage support for the arts; programming and organizing arts events), organizational structures, and institutions. This paper proposes that the current and future relevance of the Arts Management field requires new field of study, currently absent from teaching and scholarship: Arts Management history. The paper presents the case of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays (YCMP) as an early and essential recorded instance of modern Arts Management in the Western world. Through rigorous review of historical documents and the field-forming trends and relationships they present, the paper also shows how lessons from the past can inform, clarify, and illuminate similarities and new opportunities for the arts today and in our future.
And the Earth Cries: The Tears and Voices of Those Who Had No Voice, from György Ligeti to Doris Salcedo View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Carlos Gutiérrez Cajaraville, Manuela Del Caño Espinel
Tears, turned into artistic gestures, have a long history in Western art. In this communication, we explore how this transhistoric gesture can, on the one hand, make the missing links of history, heterochronies and the repressed appear, and on the other hand, it serves to dignify those who had no name in history, those silenced by politics, society or culture. In this sense, it is the task of the artist to make the people "representable" by making the very thing that is "repressed" or silenced appear. We analyze how artists such as the Hungarian composer György Ligeti (his piano étude Automne à Varsovie) or the Colombian sculpturer Doris Salcedo (A Flor de Piel, Palimpsesto) have made sensible, through their works, the failures, the places, and the moments through which, when declaring themselves “powerless”, the people affirm at the same time what they lack and what they desire. Our analyses and the consequences that emerge from the works lead us to reflect on the role of art in building a new ethic of care and fragility.
Unveiling Hidden Histories of COVID-19 through Arts-informed Narrative Reflection: Homebound View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeffrey Broome
In this paper I use arts-informed narrative reflection to share my experience as an art educator who relocated his at-risk elderly parents over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) during COVID-19 lockdowns in order to bring them closer to my own home and under my care. The resulting narrative was co-constructed through an arts-based community effort that combines storytelling, folk music, and photography. The story begins with a sense of anxiety and uncertainty, yet concludes with positive reflections on one rural Appalachian community’s use of networking, creative problem solving, and arts-based documentation as a way to combat the isolating experience of departure during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the arts-based methods further serve as a way to record a slice of local history that may have remained otherwise hidden (Kantawala, 2020) among other larger and more dire international narratives related to the coronavirus pandemic. Concluding discussions delve deeper into art’s power to capture something beyond the factual retelling of events (Barone, 2008) in ways that can be applied to any number of social settings, with specific implications for art educators and others interested in conducting arts-informed narrative inquiry.
An Attempt to Introduce a Decolonising Discourse through Art and Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Barbara Predan
On the brink of the Cold War, in 1948, Yugoslavians chose to reject both of the major blocs’ ideologies—the ideology of Western capitalism, as well as the state socialism of the East. Consequently, in Yugoslavia in the 50s and especially the 60s, the path beyond bloc politics was represented by the non-aligned movement, while the alternative in the area of the sociology of work was built on the idea of socialist self-management. All of the above also proved vital for the further professionalisation and development of Slovenian art and design. The research focuses on the models and practices of international cultural exchange in relation to the dynamics in the global cultural field. The paper focuses particularly on the work of Yugoslav designer Janja Lap. In her 1984 interior design project, done for a military training facility in Libya, we notice the surfacing of African heritage in her project, which highlights Lap's attempt to introduce a decolonisation discourse. We will show that Lap's appointment was pivotal for the success of this complex project. Throughout her career, she focused on the understanding of a holistic approach in the broader social and geographical space. When facing a complex social problem, she was more than able not only to recognise it, confront it analytically, but also to devise a new approach to dealing with the status quo and designing alternatives.
Collective Listening: Socio-political Implications and Practices View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mariana Salgueiro Rocha
This study’s primary object is the collective act of listening. More specifically, we are interested in the socio-political, ecological and philosophical implications of this action. We seek to understand how our relationship with the world and our heritage is conditioned by the act of hearing, individually or collectively. Herein, the meaning of world is understood as the personal reality of each one and that which is collectively created. Simultaneously it is the individual relationship with this reality and the way in which it will be perceived. Heritage, in this study, is understood as what is valued by the individual and not only what is institutionally considered as culturally relevant. Therefore, we intend to explore the act of listening, differentiating it from the auditory perception, or hearing. This distinction, the socio-political, ecological and philosophical implications of the act of listening, namely the act as a collective one, in a collective quotidian, is a focal point of this investigation. An integral and essential part of this study, is its aesthetical creation, divided in three parts, which reflects the concepts and ideas explored during the research. The purpose of this study is the need to understand and explore the concept of listening and its difference from hearing, in addition to its intrinsic connection to everyday life, not only individual, but collective and in community, but also to its urban heritage. It is also about questioning the relationship we have with the world and how it is conditioned by listening.
Tolerable Art : The Shift in Perception of the Visual Representation of Historical and Political Matters View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hala Georges
Through this paper, I share research findings of the Tolerable Art project, and demonstrate how it will be leading to a ‘creative outcome’. I wonder if the 'creative outcome' of the project remains ‘art’ in the typical sense. Tolerable Art research project started in April 2022. It is concerned with the shift in perception of the visual representation of historical and political matters in this day and age, particularly after Black Life Matters movement. It is questioning whether the role of art has shifted from glorifying the most powerful, to raising awareness of societal issues and making a statement against injustice. In this instance we are referring to protests and sculptures’ removals started in summer 2020, for examples; the removal of the statues of Sir John Cass and William Beckford in London. Audiences, following this movement, rejected the negative connotations of certain sculptured figures in relation to Britain’s practice of slavery from 1663 until 1807. A historical study was conducted to find out the context surrounding the most problematic historical monuments in UK, which are related to slavery and colonialism. The results were used in a survey addressed to the public. Through this quantitative research, I am able to understand people’s reactions to those historical statuses, and how their view has shifted in recent times. The innovative element in this project is responding to the research findings visually, in an attempt to try and create what would be a socially accepted piece of ‘art'.
