Knowledge Realms
The Choreography of Power: Research on Political Spectacles in Motion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Wara Alexandra Cajias Ponce
We understand the «Choreography of Power» as a political spectacle in motion that is conceived as a tradition and diplomatic tool to exalt the narrative of a government and/or nation. An exalted, non-chronological, sutured and even invented narrative that is used to justify power - who, how, and why it commands, removes, puts or bans - and to deter the enemy; a narrative that uses different disciplines of the arts as means to build the plot, develop the characters, set the tone, and convey its messages to the audience. To present the notion of «Choreography of Power», we study civic celebrations just after major social movements or revolutions that brought about a change in the form of state or government. This work is being carried out through a comparative case study of the celebrations of the "Independence Day" in Bolivia (2006 - 2019) and other analogous spectacles in Europe. This work is approached from the field of knowledge of History and Comparative Art Theory with an interdisciplinary perspective and a theoretical and methodological openness (from the performing arts and history to the hybrid field of aesthetics and politics). It is an eminently qualitative work that combines traditional methods with experimental-exploratory ones to provide a more complete understanding of our research.
Soldier, Poet, King : The Contingent and the Necessary in Homer’s Odyssey
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jack Condie
Poetry heralds the departure of the gods from this world. All of the great miracles of the past now only appear in the form of the poetic. The direct contact with divinity of the so-called Homeric age has vanished and all that is left in its wake is the mediation of song. The drive that compels us to narrate has thrown up a great challenge to us moderns. For Paul Ricœur, the act of narration is the invention of a “narrative necessity” which transforms the contingent character of the event being recalled into looking as if it could be no other way. This contemporary discussion of narrative’s relationship to causality, necessity, and contingency might serve well to highlight the issue as it already appears latent in the ancient world. In the ancient tongue these notions appear as Chance and Fate, and what those ancient narrators (poets) do to them is anything but clear. This paper will think through the relationship between Chance and Fate in Homer’s Odyssey, alongside Seth Benardete’s reading that the Odyssey is a poem working toward “the occlusion of the gods.” As well as considering Charles Stocking’s recent work on co-agency and the Homeric subject. Ultimately making the case that the poets, in their view to the whole that blurs any distinction between Chance and Fate, usher in the potential of a new constitution of the subject that perhaps was not possible on the fields of Troy and perhaps create the very soil that philosophy itself emerges.
Le Musee Français (1803-1812): A Global Distribution of Fine Prints and Transnational Dialogue of Ideas
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Susanne Anderson Riedel
In early 19th century, the Louvre Museum grew to unimaginable size and depth of European art through annexation and loot. The collections brought together the continent’s most celebrated artworks and reproductions of the museum holdings in fine prints made the artworks accessible far beyond the walls of the museum. The print albums Le Musée Français, produced by private initiative, published over 300 engravings after the Louvre holdings. The print reproductions and accompanying scholarly articles translated historical art in a modern aesthetic and for a contemporary audience. The success of the publication was imminent. The albums entered private and public art collections, libraries, trade schools throughout Europe and collections in European colonies. In 1816, the Portuguese monarchy, establishing political and cultural dominance in Brazil, invited a group of French artists to establish an art education program in Rio de Janeiro. The Musée Français albums, brought to Brazil, played an important new role in cultural affairs: European art in prints became a tool of colonial glorification and cultural repression. The multiplicity and portability of prints allowed for the private art project to emerge as a political tool reinforcing ideas of cultural hegemony on a global scale.
