Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth

International Conference for PhD Students DECLINE – METAMORPHOSIS – REBIRTH

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

Ljubljana, 18 – 20 September 2014

Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth International Conference for PhD Students Ljubljana, 18 – 20 September 2014 BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Editors: Tine Germ, Marina Vicelja Matijašić, Martina Malešič, Katra Meke, Ines Unetič, Asta Vrečko, Miha Zor Design and layout: Jure Preglau Proofreading: Josh Rocchio © University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, 2014.

All rights reserved.

Published and issued by: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts) For the publisher: Branka Kalenić Ramšak, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts Printed by: Birografika Bori d. o. o.

Ljubljana, 2014 First Edition Number of copies printed: 100 Publication is free of charge.

CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 7.03(082) DECLINE - metamorphosis - rebirth : international conference for PhD students, Ljubljana, 18 - 20 September 2014 : book of abstracts / [editors Tine Germ ... et al.]. 1st ed. - Ljubljana : Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete = University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2014 ISBN 978-961-237-675-8 1. Germ, Tine 275436800

DECLINE – METAMORPHOSIS – REBIRTH International Conference for PhD Students Ljubljana, 18 – 20 September 2014 BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

Organizing Committee: Prof. Dr. Tine Germ, Prof. Dr. Marina Vicelja Matijašić, Iva Brusić, Dr. Martina Malešič, Katra Meke, Petra Predoević, Dr. Ines Unetič, Asta Vrečko, Jure Vuga, Miha Zor

CONTENTS Conference programme

7

Branka Kalenić Ramšak The Beginning of a New Project in the Field of Doctoral Study and Research Work

13

Marina Vicelja Matijašić, Tine Germ Decline – Metamorphosis - Rebirth: The First International Academic Conference for Doctoral Students and Young Doctoral Graduates

15

Marina Vicelja-Matijašić What is an Image?

17

Fabien Benuzzi The “Cinquecento’s Revival” in Eighteenth Century Venice: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture

18

Ana Bogdanović The Artist Association “Zograf” and the Idea of Revitalization of “Our Art”

19

Iva Brusić Venice and Constantinople: Rise of One City on Behalf of Another

20

Gašper Cerkovnik Cristoph Schwarz’s Last Judgment and Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria

21

Alenka Di Battista Modern Slovenian Architectural Publications in the Times of Housing, Social, and Financial Crises of the 1930s

22

Laura Giudici The Representation of Intersex Bodies in Klonaris/ Thomadaki’s Multimedia Practice

23

Sanja Horvatinčić “Ballade of the Hanged Men”: World War II Atrocities and Representational Strategies of Memorial Sculpture in Socialist Yugoslavia

24

3

Nataša Ivanović The Forgotten and Rediscovered Artist Lovro Janša

25

Vanja Kočevar Political Decline of the Carniolan Provincial Estates and Their Transformation between the 16th and 18th Century

26

Meta Kordiš Mario Marzidovšek – “the Heart” of the Štajerska/ Styria Alternative Scene in the 1980s.

27

Tina Košir Mazi Transforming the Destructive Forces through Ritual, Philosophy, and Art: The Case of Non-Dual Kashmir S´aivism

28

Simona Kostanjšek Brglez The Motif of the Rape of Europa in Slovenian Art in the 20th and 21st Century

29

Ana Krevelj Animal Iconography in Bestiary Tradition, Its Decline and Transformation in Modern Era

30

Theresa A. Kutasz A Hellenistic Skyscraper: Resurrections and Re-Conceptualization of the Lost Pharos at Alexandria in the Twentieth Century

31

Martina Malešič Slovenian Architecture after 1948 – from the East to the West

32

Eliška Mazalanová Together with the Audience: The Rebirth of the Concept of Participation

33

Katra Meke Seicento – the Decline of Venetian Painting? The Metamorphosis of the Perception and Reception through the Centuries

34

Dragana Modrić Survival Tools - Political Strategies in the Community Artwork of Andreja Kulunčić

35

4

Katarina Mohar The Metamorphosis of Christian Iconography in the State Commissioned Monumental Painting of Socialist Slovenia

36

Dunja Opatić Real and Reel Horror: How News Imaginary in a State of National Emergency Imbued the Resurgence of American Splatter Films

37

Nina Petek Between Transience and Searching for Liberation: Buddhism and Images of Japanese Aesthetic

38

Ivana Podnar Reaffirmation of Christian Symbolism within the City of Zagreb

40

Annabelle Ruiz The Gorgon Medusa Metamorphoses: From a Declining Pictorial Motif to Rebirth into a Cinematographic Motif (End of the 19th Century, Beginning of the 21st Century)

41

Tibor Rutar What is Left of Historical Materialism Today?

42

Rainer Schützeichel Rediscovery as a Key to Modernization: The Role of the Years “around 1800” in Early 20th Century Architectural Theory in Germany Andra Silape-tere “The Exile Effect”: Latvian Exile Art in the United States 1948–1970

43

44

Ines Unetič The Historical in European Garden Art of the Late 18th and Early 19th Century

45

Ivana Nina Unković The Unification of Restoration Work within Conservation Activities – Croatia’s Example

46

Cristina Vasconcelos de Almeida A Critical Approach to the Cycles Decline-Metamorphosis-Rebirth in the Work of Contemporary Artists

47

5

Goran Vranešević Bacchanic Realism

48

Asta Vrečko Realisms in Slovenian Art in the Thirties

50

Jure Vuga The Elements of Ancient Mystery Cults and the Neoplatonic Allegories in Botticelli’s “Primavera”

51

Wendy Wiertz The Rebirth of the Amateur Artist: The Effect of Past Opinions on the Amateur Artist in Current Research

52

Miha Zor Iconographical Metamorphosis in Manuscripts of the “Estoire del saint Graal” (ca. 1275-ca. 1330)

53

6

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME / PROGRAM KONFERENCE / PROGRAM ZNANSTVENOG SKUPA Thursday, 18th September 2014 / četrtek, 18. september 2014 / četvrtak, 18. rujan 2014.

Faculty of Arts (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 5th floor – the blue room / Filozofska fakulteta (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 5. nadstropje – modra soba / Filozofski fakultet (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 5. kat – plava soba 8:30 - 9:30 9:30

registration / registracija / registracija Opening of the conference / otvoritev konference / otvaranje znanstvenog skupa Greetings and introductory speeches / pozdrav in uvodni nagovori / pozdrav i uvodni govori • Prof. dr. Branka Kalenić Ramšak, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana / Dekanja Filozofske fakultete, Univerza v Ljubljani / Dekanica Filozofskog fakulteta, Sveučilište u Ljubljani • Prof. dr. Marina Vicelja Matijašić, Director of the Center for Iconographic Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Rijeka / Direktorica Centra za ikonografske študije, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Reki / Direktorica Centra za ikonografske studije, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Rijeci • Prof. dr. Tine Germ, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Head of the Department of Art History / Prodekan Filozofske fakultete, Univerza v Ljubljani, predstojnik Oddelka za umetnostno zgodovino / Prodekan Filozofskog fakulteta, Sveučilište u Ljubljani, predstojnik odsjeka za povijest umjetnosti

10:00 - 10:30 What is an Image?

• Prof. dr. Marina Vicelja Matijašić, guest speaker / vabljena predavateljica / pozvani govornik

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10:30 - 12:00 Panel 1. Moderator: Miha Zor • Tibor Rutar (Slovenia, Ljubljana) What is Left of Historical Materialism Today?

• Nina Petek (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Between Transience and Searching for Liberation: Buddhism and Images of Japanese Aesthetic • Tina Košir Mazi (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Transforming the Destructive Forces Through Ritual, Philosophy and Art: The Case of Non-Dual Kashmir Śaivism 12:00 - 12:30

coffee break / odmor za kavo / pauza za kavu

12:30 - 14:15 Panel 2. Moderator: Jure Vuga • Annabelle Ruiz (France, Lyon) The Gorgon Medusa Metamorphoses: From a Declining Pictorial Motif to Rebirth into a Cinematographic Motif (End of the 19th Century, Beginning of the 21st Century) • Ana Krevelj (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Animal Iconography in Bestiary Tradition, Its Decline and Transformation in Modern Era • Theresa A Kutasz (USA, Pennsylvania) A Hellenistic Skyscraper: Resurrections and ReConceptualization of the Lost Pharos at Alexandria in the Twentieth Century • Miha Zor (Slovenia, Kranj) Iconographical Metamorphosis in Manuscripts of the “Estoire del saint Graal” (ca. 1275-ca. 1330) 14:15 - 15:30 – lunch1 / kosilo / ručak 15:30 - 17:15 Panel 3. Moderator: Ines Unetič • Jure Vuga (Slovenia, Koper) The Elements of Ancient Mistery Cults and the Neoplatonic Allegories in Botticelli “Primavera” • Goran Vranešević (Slovenia, Kranj) Bacchanic Realism 1 Lunch is not provided by the organizers. / Organizatorji ne krijejo stroškov kosila./ Ručak nije osiguran od strane organizatora.

8

• Sanja Horvatinčić (Croatia, Zagreb) “Ballade of the Hanged Men”: World War II Atrocities and Representational Strategies of Memorial Sculpture in Socialist Yugoslavia • Simona Kostanjšek Brglez (Slovenia, Poljčane) The Motif of the Rape of Europa in the Slovenian Art in the 20th and 21st Century 17:15 - 17:45

coffee break / odmor za kavo / pauza za kavu /

17:45 - 19:15 Panel 4. Moderator: Jure Vuga • Iva Brusić (Croatia, Rijeka) Venice and Constantinople: Rise of One City on Behalf of Another • Fabien Benuzzi (Italy, Nago-Torbole) The “Cinquecento’s Revival” in Eighteenth Century Venice: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture • Katra Meke (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Seicento - the Decline of Venetian Painting? The Metamorphosis of the Perception through the Centuries

Friday, 19th September 2014 / petek, 19. September 2014 / petak, 19. rujan 2014.

Faculty of Arts (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3rd floor – lecture room 343 / Filozofska fakulteta (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3. nadstropje – predavalnica 343 / Filozofski fakultet (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3. kat – učionica 343 9:30 - 11:15

Panel 5. Moderator: Asta Vrečko • Wendy Wiertz (Belgium, Leuven) The Rebirth of the Amateur Artist: The Effect of Past Opinions on the Amateur Artist in Current Research • Nataša Ivanović (Slovenia, Ljubljana) The Forgotten and Rediscovered Artist Lovro Janša • Andra Silapētere (Latvia, Riga) “The Exile Effect”: Latvian Exile Art in United States 1948–1970 • Meta Kordiš (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Mario Marzidovšek – “the Heart” of Štajerska/Styria Alternative Scene in 1980s.

9

11:15 - 11:45

coffee break / odmor za kavo / pauza za kavu

11:45 - 13:00 Panel 6. Moderator: Martina Malešič • Rainer Schützeichel (Switzerland, Zürich) Rediscovery as a Key to Modernization: The Role of the Years “around 1800” in Early 20th Century Architectural Theory in Germany • Ines Unetič (Slovenia, Ljubljana) The Historical in European Garden Art of the Late 18th and Early 19th Century 13:00 - 14:30

lunch / kosilo / ručak

14:30 - 16:15 Panel 7. Moderator: Martina Malešič • Katarina Mohar (Slovenia, Ljubljana) The Metamorphosis of Christian Iconography in the State Commissioned Monumental Painting of Socialist Slovenia • Ivana Podnar (Croatia, Zagreb) Reaffirmation of Christian Symbolism Within the City of Zagreb • Ana Bogdanović (Serbia, Beograd) Artist Association “Zograf” and the Idea of Revitalization of “Our Art” • Asta Vrečko (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Realisms in Slovenian Art in the Thirties 16:15 - 16:45

Coffee break / odmor za kavo / pauza za kavu

16:45 - 18:30 Panel 8. Moderator: Miha Zor • Cristina Vasconcelos de Almeida (Germany, Frankfurt am Main) A Critical Approach to the Cycles Decline-MetamorphosisRebirth in the Work of Contemporary Artists • Laura Giudici (Switzerland, Fribourg) The Representation of Intersex Bodies in Klonaris/ Thomadaki’s Multimedia Practice • Eliška Mazalanová (Czech Republic, Praga) Together with the Audience. Rebirth of the Concept of Participation 10

• Dunja Opatič (Croatia, Zagreb) Real and Reel Horror: How News Imaginary in a State of National Emergency Imbued the Resurgence of American Splatter Films

Saturday, 20th September 2014 / sobota, 20. september 2014 / subota, 20. rujan 2014.

Faculty of Arts (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3rd floor – lecture room 343 / Filozofska fakulteta (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3. nadstropje – predavalnica 343 / Filozofski fakultet (Aškerčeva cesta 2), 3. kat – učionica 343 9:30 - 11:00

Panel 9. Moderator: Ines Unetič • Vanja Kočevar (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Political Decline of the Carniolan Provincial Estates and Their Transformation between the 16th and 18th Century • Gašper Cerkovnik (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Cristoph Schwarz’s Last Judgment and Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria • Dragana Modrić (Croatia, Split) Survival Tools - Political Strategies in the Community Artwork of Andreja Kulunčić

11:00 - 11:30

coffee break / odmor za kavo / pauza za kavu

11:30 - 13:00 Panel 10. Moderator: Asta Vrečko • Alenka Di Battista (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Modern Slovenian Architectural Publications in Times of Housing, Social and Financial Crises of the 1930s • Martina Malešič (Slovenia, Ljubljana) Slovenian Architecture after 1948 – from the East to the West • Ivana Nina Unković (Croatia, Split) The Unification of Restoration Work within Conservation Activities – Croatia‘s Example 13:00 - 13:30

Final discussion / zaključna diskusija / zaključna rasprava

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13:30 - 14:45

Lunch / kosilo / ručak

14:45

Free guided tour of Ljubljana / brezplačen voden ogled po Ljubljani / besplatno vođeno razgledavanje Ljubljane

Contact / Kontakt / Kontakt: phdconference2014@gmail.com

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THE BEGINNING OF A NEW PROJECT IN THE FIELD OF DOCTORAL STUDY AND RESEARCH WORK The academic conference for doctoral students and young doctoral graduates, Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth, is an international project organised by the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana and the Centre for Iconographic Studies at the Faculty for Humanities and Social Science in Rijeka. The project is the result of collaboration between the two institutions over a number of years, while the idea of a special academic conference aimed at doctoral and post-doctoral students arose on the basis of the two faculties’ experience in academic and research activities.

One of the direct initiatives is connected with the international establishment of a conference in iconographic studies, which for eight consecutive years has been organised by the Centre for Iconographic Studies at the Faculty for Humanities and Social Science in Rijeka, together with reputable European universities and research institutions in other parts of the world, including the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. An important role was also played by the founding of two interdisciplinary journals, namely the academic newspaper Ikon, published since 2008 by the Centre for Iconographic Studies, and the journal Ars & Humanitas, published since 2007 by the Academic Publishing Division of the Faculty of Arts. The exceptional success of the conference, which within a few years became one of the most important world forums for research in the field of iconography, and the reputation two journals acquired within the humanities are proof that the Rijeka and Ljubljana faculties have successfully outlined a new chapter in international collaboration, uniting researchers in numerous fields in arts and social sciences. Interest in iconography and iconology is on the rise and has already transcended the field of the history of art and, as the result of its notably interdisciplinary character, has long been of interest to various other disciplines.

When setting up the project, the organisers gave the highest priority to the wishes and proposals of young researchers for a new type of academic conference targeted at a particular group – doctoral and post-doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences. This type of conference offers young, progressive researchers an opportunity to present their work, exchange experience with others in their field, and forge international connections. Because of the various institutional, technical, and formal registration conditions for large international academic gatherings, as well as the competition with their older, more established colleagues, it is often difficult for young researchers to fulfil all the conditions for participation, which puts them in an unequal position and often means that they are deprived of valuable experience in this type of academic forum.

The international conference for doctoral students and post-doctoral graduates is not only an opportunity for the conference participants, but also has significant dividends for research, since this is exactly the group of investigators that is most creative, inventive, and most open to new ideas. This type of conference can thus be an incubator for creative ideas and approaches, with the payoff of an important contribution to the field.

At the same time, it offers an incentive to MA students, since it opens a path for them, sets for them standards of research work, and offers opportunities which they will be 13

able to explore as their studies continue. Last, but not least: every successful international academic conference is an important event for the faculty and university that organised it, and a new form of academic gathering aimed at our young colleagues has a special, added value.

It is our wish at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana that the first international conference for doctoral students and fresh doctoral graduates should grow into a regular academic meeting of talented, creative, and insightful young researchers from all over the world. The exceptional response to the initiative for this conference at home and abroad proves that its organisers have correctly assessed the needs and expectations of young researchers, and thus the future of the new project seems ensured.

Prof. Dr. Branka Kalenić Ramťak Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

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DECLINE – METAMORPHOSIS - REBIRTH THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC CONFERENCE FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS AND YOUNG DOCTORAL GRADUATES The international conference for doctoral students and fresh doctoral graduates organised by the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana and the Centre for Iconographic Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science in Rijeka is the beginning of a new project, consisting of academic gatherings aimed at insightful young researchers in the field of the humanities and social sciences.

It aims to be interdisciplinary, while its central themes are iconography and iconology.

Thanks to their comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, these transcend the confines of the history of art and embrace other humanities disciplines. The organisers also encourage the openness of interpretations and methodological approaches selecting a topic that is broad enough to be explored from a variety of methodological viewpoints and the perspective of a wide range of disciplines.

Through its openness and topicality, the title of the first international conference for doctoral students and young doctoral graduates, Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth, represents a challenge for young researchers in very diverse fields. The history of humankind consists of the rise and fall of civilisations, governments, ideologies, social and cultural movements, artistic creativity, etc. In both social and artistic fields, periods of crisis, collapse and decay, decline and decadence usually signify a time of reflection, of the maturation of new ideas, and a search for new solutions. Frequently, they are also an opportunity for a critical assessment of a particular moment in history, of society, culture, or art, which opens up a new view on the past and calls for a return of old values.

Above all, decline – a word with many connotations and very different interpretations – rarely signifies a true end, since the history of civilisations is a living, uninterrupted flow of constant rebirth. Decline, metamorphosis, and rebirth are three inseparable episodes of transformation that are constantly ebbing and flowing in all walks of life.

The first international conference for doctoral students and fresh doctoral graduates is focused on the concepts and manifestations of the triad Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth in the field of artistic creativity. As the intersection of two such wide sets as artistic creativity and the concept of decline-metamorphosis-rebirth encompasses an incredibly extensive range of themes and research subjects, the conference format offers as a starting point a number of self-contained topical categories. Thus within the overarching theme, the following topics are proposed: • •

perception and interpretation of the concepts of decline, metamorphosis, and rebirth in different periods and in different fields of the humanities and social sciences artistic creativity and life in periods of decline, metamorphosis, and rebirth (the influence of social changes on artistic creativity and its reaction to them)

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• • • • • • • •

understanding of and the attitude to historical phenomena, periods, and cultural heritage in different eras the decline, metamorphosis, and rebirth of social structures, governments, political structures, and ideologies artistic and social contexts and the significance of historicisms, neo- and poststylistic definitions the iconographic motif of decline and/or rebirth in art transformations of iconographic motifs, their perception and significance in a new context forgotten, newly discovered or “rehabilitated” artists crisis, transformation, and rebirth in the oeuvre of an individual artist the revival (Nachleben) of concepts and content within art-historical periods

The relevance of the conference title theme and the topics offered for discussion is confirmed by the exceptional response from the academic public – many more researchers applied to take part than it was possible to accept, even though the conference was extended from the original two days to three. The announcement of the conference has also attracted the attention of foreign publishers and the eminent English academic publishing house Cambridge Scholar Publishing has already expressed an interest in the publication of the findings of the presented research. The organisers believe that the wide international attendance, the excellence of the home universities of the participants and the interesting themes of the registered papers are a firm guarantee for the success of the event. At the same time, we hope that the conference will attract the attention of the wider academic public and become established as a new form of academic forum, aimed at insightful young scholars.

Prof. Dr. Marina Vicelja Matijašić Director of the Centre for Iconographic Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Rijeka Prof. Dr. Tine Germ Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Head of the Department of Art History

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Marina Vicelja-Matijašić Department of Art History, Center for Iconographic Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies, University of Rijeka Sveučilišna avenija 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia mvicelja@ffri.hr

WHAT IS AN IMAGE? In the recent transformations in methodologies in humanities and shift towards the interdisciplinary quest it is often difficult to define the „proper“ approach(es) to problems in art history. But, the questions of this have been the stuff of major art-historical reflections since the beginning of the 20th century and, despite particular intellectual and institutional settlements, one of the major costs to the discipline has been the reduction of all forms of theoretical thought to matters of „method“. Most recently the tendencies to renew discussions on the various grounds of contemporary art-historical practice, introduced a historiographic turn as well as the whole new landscape of „alternatives“ to art history, such as visual studies or visual culture. Both directions are grounded on the intellectual traditions of „images“, that became one of the major approaches within European narrative of art and one of its internal subjects.

The primary focus of the talk is accordingly on the „readings“ and interpreting of images as objects of art historian work. Images work in art-historical discourse as placeholders, especially with some art historians such as Panofsky, Belting, Boehm or Mitchell.

We will try to see how „image“, not as a term but as a concept, evolved and transformed in relation to visual, knowledge and belief. Does image lie within time (history) or does it have autonomous presence beyond its cultural and historical context? Are we to talk about images as things and representations or events and relations? Contemporary conceptions of image challenged the traditional discourse which will be discussed on the selected examples.

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Fabien Benuzzi, PhD Via Malga Zures 11 38069, Nago-Torbole (TN), Italy fabien.benuzzi@gmail.com

THE “CINQUECENTO’S REVIVAL” IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VENICE PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE The proposed paper aims to focus especially on the topic of “Artistic Revival”, analyzing the success of “Cinquecento’s art” in Eighteenth Century Venice. This period is quite peculiar in the history of the Venetian Republic, as its inexorable political and military decline, which would have finally led to its conquest by Napoleon, is opposed to the last bloom of the arts, the “swan song” of its glorious artistic tradition. Despite this decadence, the artists depicted a false image of a still triumphant Venice, celebrating at the same time the noble and wealthiest families with opulent paintings. Some examples can be found in several of Giambattista Tiepolo’s works, like the canvas in Palazzo Ducale where the god Neptune honors Venice or the huge Apotheosis of the Pisani Family in Stra, subjects out of time in illuminist Europe. The model for Tiepolo and the others artists, like Sebastiano Ricci, was obviously Veronese, the Cinquecento’s ablest artist for representing the glory and prosperity of Venice.

The revival of the 16th Century concerned not only the painters, but also the architects and the sculptors, who looked to other of Cinquecento’s great artists who transformed Venice, overall Andrea Palladio and Jacopo Sansovino. The Venetian church facades of the Baroque age, full of sculptures, were substituted by more sober and brighter ones, inspired by Palladio’s works like San Giorgio Maggiore. Sansovino’s Loggetta, the center of Venice’s public life, was instead completed in style by Giorgio Massari with sculptures of Antonio Gai imitating the Renaissance’s models.

The speech will therefore present several examples of this talk, which could be compared to its famous 16th Century models, analyzing at the same time similarities and differences both from the iconographical and the stylistic point of view. Attention will also be devoted to the transition from the Baroque and to the coexistence with the first pre-Neoclassical works, a topic that concerns overall Sculpture and Architecture, thanks to the important collections of Antique statues in the “Statuario Publico” and to the influence of Lombardo’s works. The last question can be related to the reasons of this revival; was the imitation caused only by the demand of the clients or also intellectuals (like Francesco Algarotti or Anton Maria Zanetti) played an important role? And what was the autonomy of the artists in their stylistic choices?

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Ana Bogdanović, M.A. Research Assistant and PhD Candidate Seminar for History of Modern Art, Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade Molerova 49/14, 11111 Belgrade - Serbia ana.bogdanovic@f.bg.ac.rs

THE ARTIST ASSOCIATION “ZOGRAF” AND THE IDEA OF REVITALIZATION OF “OUR ART” The 1920s are seen as a very dynamic and progressive phase in the historiography of development of modern art in Serbia, since during this period the model of WesternEuropean, or rather the Paris-oriented modernism was introduced and institutionalized as a dominant credo within the artistic life in Belgrade. The representatives of the modernist attitude to artistic practice that was comprehended as emancipatory due to its international character were the members of artist group Oblik (Eng. Shape), which was founded in Belgrade in 1926. At the same time, as a reaction to this stance, several Belgrade-based artists saw the prevailing orientation toward Parisian modernism as spiritual crisis in our art1 and formed the artistic association Zograf (Eng. Zograph) in 1927, proposing an alternative model of artistic activity based on the idea of revitalization of Serbian medieval/Byzantine art and folk craftwork. Vasa Pomorišac, the painter and the spokesman of the Zograf association, observed the reason for the spiritual decline of the current cultural and social life in the ignorance toward the national cultural heritage, emphasizing the need for artists to reconsider the national and local traditions and incorporate them in their artistic expression in order to surpass the crises observed.

This paper aims to present and analyze the methodology of transformation in the field of art as articulated by the Zograf association, focusing on the appropriation of historical and religious themes in the visual language of modernism. The notion of our art and the debate around its formation, which was lively during this time between the aforementioned groups of artists, will also be discussed.

1

The phrase our art is during this time commonly used to signify the artistic production within the national framework and suggests the orientation that aims to create an authentic expression in art based on the local characteristics. I am here referring to the text by Vasa Pomorišac “The crises in our art” published in Belgrade in 1928.

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Iva Brusić PhD Candidate (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Center for Iconographic Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia iva.brusic@gmail.com

VENICE AND CONSTANTINOPLE RISE OF ONE CITY ON BEHALF OF ANOTHER At the beginning of the 8th century, the entire Venetian lagoon was under direct Byzantine rule. The city of Venice as we know it, however, started developing only in 812, when the dux moved his seat to Rivo Alto (today Rialto). Constantinople, on the other hand, was not only the capital of a great Byzantine Empire and a trade center with commodities coming from the whole Asian continent, but it was, until the 12th century, the largest and the richest city in the world.

After the appropriation of the body and cult of St Mark, Venice started its rapid growth.

In the year 1000, it acquired at first only indirect rule over the Adriatic region. The 11th and 12th centuries were a time of gradual and steady development, which was due to thriving trade with the East, especially with Constantinople. However, the crucial moment for the development of the Serenissima is the Fourth Crusade, the goal of which was to conquer Constantinople. The same event, led by Venetian Crusaders, was the beginning of the downfall of Constantinople. The crusaders vandalized the city, demolishing invaluable architecture and artwork. Instead of just destroying everything, the Venetians also took some amazing pieces to adorn their own great city. Among those are the famous bronze horses, which now stand on the top of St Mark’s Basilica, and the porphyry statue of the Four Tetrarchs, built into the south-west corner of the Basilica.

Exactly those relics would, in the following centuries, be used to strengthen the image of Venice as being the heir to the Byzantine Empire.

In this paper, I will try to explain how the Republic of Serenissima became the strongest power in the Mediterranean, building its legacy on the tradition and power of Constantinople. The rise is not only due to the objects brought in the Fourth Crusade, but also on the exchange of concepts and ideas, as well as just “imitation”, even preceding the Crusade. I will try to discuss the importance of context for communicating meaning or messages through artwork and their places. In reference to the “changes”, “space” played a crucial role. Byzantium had great impact on the foundation of the Venetian State, especially on the state model and institutional and administrative organization.

Over time, from being a byzantine vassal Venice became the inheritor of the Eastern Roman Empire in the West. Without the downfall of the great city of Constantinople, this would not have been possible.

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Gašper Cerkovnik, PhD Researcher Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia gasper.cerkovnik@ff.uni-lj.si

CRISTOPH SCHWARZ’S LAST JUDGMENT AND COUNTERREFORMATION IN INNER AUSTRIA The period of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria (existed as a separate political entity from 1564 to 1619; consisted of duchy of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, counties of Pazin and Gorizia, capital in Graz) is considered to be one of the most important historical processes, having left an impact on the region in terms of politics and religion to this day. Important to both of the Inner Austrian rulers, Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and his son Ferdinand, the future Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, was the close dynastic connection with the ruling Bavarian Wittelsbach family, since both men were married to their princesses. The two families were further connected by their allegiance to Catholicism and a strong bond with the Jesuits, who came to Graz from Munich in 1572, and last but not least also their dedication to the fine arts.

The Counter-Reformation at the time of Archduke Ferdinand, which concluded with the expulsion of the Protestant aristocracy in 1628, was not only marked by the active policies set against the Protestants, but also by an intensive revival of Catholicism, in which art played an important role. Four examples of the use of a copper engraving depicting the Last Judgment by Jan Sadeler I, which is a reproduction of the lost image by Munich painter Christoph Schwarz, has been closely linked to the Graz court and thus indirectly to Munich. These examples indicate the close connections between Inner Austria and Bavaria, the use of iconographical motifs and ways in which they are perceived in new Counter-Reformation contexts.

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Alenka Di Battista Assistant Researcher and PhD Candidate France Stele Institute of Art History Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2, PO Box 306, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia alenka.di.battista@zrc-sazu.si

MODERN SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURAL PUBLICATIONS IN THE TIMES OF HOUSING, SOCIAL, AND FINANCIAL CRISES OF THE 1930S During the interbellum period the new multinational Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918-1929), later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929-1939), was faced with the task of solving the postwar housing and social crises. The central, regional, and local authorities tried to organize new, affordable social dwellings. However, the continuous growth of the urban population and the Great Depression in 1930s made the situation in the country more difficult.

The proposed paper will present the effects of the decline in the 1930s on Architecture and how modern architects attempted to react to the challenges of that time. It will analyze modern Slovenian architects’ different reflections and solutions developed as a response to the housing and social crises of that period.

These ideas were published in various contemporaneous publications and were therefore accessible to a broad and heterogeneous public. One of them was Rado Kregar’s architectural manuals Naš dom 1-3 (Our Home 1-3), published by the Slovenian women’s magazine Žena in dom (Wife and House) in 1934, 1936, and 1937. They promoted decentralization and dwelling for minimal existence (Existenzminimum) in order to improve health and provide adequate accommodation on the city outskirts to diverse groups of residents. By comparing them with the concepts presented in the monthly journal Arhitektura (Architecture, 1931-34), as well as in the handbooks Stanovanje (Apartment, 1931) and Kako opremim stanovanje (How to furnish your house, 1939), a broader perspective on this topic will be provided. Moreover, by taking into account some of the published housing plans and designs, the possible international influences on Slovenian dwelling architecture could be defined.

The purpose of my paper is to give an insight into the decline of the 1930s through a detailed analysis of the mentioned architectural manuals, which were usually conceived by modern architects as an architectural response to crisis in history.

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Laura Giudici Assistant Researcher Fonds National Suisse, Chaire d’Histoire de l’art moderne et contemporain Université de Fribourg Av. de l’Europe 20, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland laura.giudici@unifr.ch

THE REPRESENTATION OF INTERSEX BODIES IN KLONARIS/ THOMADAKI’S MULTIMEDIA PRACTICE The core of my research is centered on the body, identity, and visual representations of intersexuality. Where medicine and art meet, this topic is inevitably involved in delicate philosophical, social, and cultural issues. These images are challenging to the art historian, opening a wide spectrum of methodological questions. From which perspective should these pictures be analyzed? How is it possible to develop a suitable interdisciplinary approach?

The multimedia practice of the duo artists Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki is a very good example of how these issues can be integrated. Two series of works – Cycle des Hermaphrodites (1982-1990) and Cycle de l’Ange (1985-2003) – are focused on intersexuality, both of which question in different ways the problem of the migration of images and ideas. The starting point for the first series was the famous sculpture of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite and, for the second, an anonymous medical photograph of an intersex person. Using different media approaches, the artists metamorphosed these pictures in many ways, combining them with other elements to create immersive visual and auditory environments, thereby evoking links between the past and the present, as well as imagination and reality. The result is a work which not only addresses concerns of gender and (post-)identity, but also technological, intermedia, and interdisciplinary issues related to artistic practices. Another interesting aspect of Klonaris/ Thomadaki’s projects is their reflection on an alternative understanding of performance and perception.

The concept of “Nachleben” as investigated by Aby Warburg and the anthropological approach theorized by Hans Belting seem to offer efficient instruments for analyzing these two series of works. It is nevertheless necessary to combine them with other methodological points of view and the theoretical assertions made by the artists themselves to arrive at a thorough comprehension of their visual world.

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Sanja Horvatinčić, MA Research Assistant and PhD Candidate, Institute of Art History Ulica grada Vukovara 68/III, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia shorvat@ipu.hr

“BALLADE OF THE HANGED MEN” WORLD WAR II ATROCITIES AND REPRESENTATIONAL STRATEGIES OF MEMORIAL SCULPTURE IN SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA The post-WWII crisis of artistic expression can be analyzed as a consequence of collective war trauma and individual artists’ experience with unspeakable human suffering and mass murders. The extent of this issue had been summed up in Adorno’s famous claim that writing poetry after Auschwitz was an act of barbarism. In practice, however, the collective and individual need to remember, as well as the political obligation of commemorating the victims, remained present in all postbellum societies. Despite new interpretations of the symbolic, aesthetic, and utilitarian functions of a memorial, it also remained an important tool for manifesting political power by offering a “sacred” place of keeping war traumas alive.

The representation of war atrocities in socialist Yugoslavia in the medium of memorial sculpture was mainly focused on the victims of the fascist occupational regimes and their local collaborators. Such commemorating practices also served as permanent reminders of the importance of the Yugoslav Partisan movement and the Socialist revolution for the liberation of the people, and as such, as the legitimization of the post-war political power of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

A frequent subject of the memorial sculpture representing the atrocities of the WWII in Yugoslavia was the practice of public hanging of the captives and innocent victims, which the enemy considered to be an efficient way of deterring the insurgents and thus weakening the strong antifascist resistance. By analyzing different examples of sculptural and architectural treatment of the subject, located throughout the territory of former Yugoslavia, the aim of this paper is to define main artistic strategies used by sculptors and architects when approaching the difficult task of public mediation of the memory of war suffering: from the translation of the motif from photographic to sculptural medium (Valjevo, Opuzen), through different degrees of sculptural reduction and/or deconstruction of human figure (Ljubljana, Subotica), scenographic/architectural recreations of the site of the terror (Gospić, Zaječar), to the almost complete abstraction of the motif itself (Zagreb). The aforementioned difficulty of artistic representation of public hangings seem to have had resulted in the departure from the realistic treatment of human figure, and had let to the proliferation of formal approaches to the subject. The innovative sculptural treatment of such a publicly sensitive and politically important subject, which often corresponded to artists’ latest experiments in the sculptural medium and resulted in some of their best public works, makes an important contribution to the understanding of the complex phenomenon of the development of memorial sculpture in Yugoslavia since the mid-1950s.

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Nataša Ivanović, PhD Researcher Research Institute for Visual Culture from the 19th Century to the Present Time Ljubljana, Slovenia natasa.ivanovic@ri19plus.si

THE FORGOTTEN AND REDISCOVERED ARTIST LOVRO JANŠA This dense and convoluted short study will be an authentic presentation of the forgotten landscape painter Lovro Janša (1749–1812), not only as a simple monographic individual depiction of an artist, but also as a part of its cultural-historical milieu. Janša’s life and his opus will serve merely as the basis of the demonstration of the discourse of the reception between the spectator, the artwork, and the artist in Vienna and its surroundings. The main emphasis will remain on the relevancy of the artwork as an individual object which is evaluated through the historical analysis, led not by an artist as a genius but their artwork as proof of the painter’s, commissioner’s, collector’s, and spectator’s view around 1800.

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Vanja Kočevar Assistant Researcher and PhD Candidate Milko Kos Historical Institute Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2, PO Box 306, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia vkocevar@zrc-sazu.si

POLITICAL DECLINE OF THE CARNIOLAN PROVINCIAL ESTATES AND THEIR TRANSFORMATION BETWEEN THE 16TH AND 18TH CENTURY This article investigates the political power and activity of the Carniolan provincial estates between the middle of the 16th century and beginning of the 18th century. The first part of this period was characterized by the political dualism between the provincial estates on one hand and the monarch on the other. The opposing parties were also distinguished by their respective religions. The Catholic prince was quite often faced by the opposition of self-confident provincial estates. The confessional-political conflict was at the same time influenced by matters of foreign affairs and military considerations. The most prominent among these was the spread of the Ottoman Empire into Europe, which was during the 16th century a permanent threat to the Duchy of Carniola in.

The estates reached the highest point of their political power in 1578, when the archduke Charles II of Inner Austria recognized confessional concessions to them. At the same time, however, the estates agreed to finance the upkeep of the so called military border with the Ottoman Empire, a counter concession which reduced their ability to negotiate with the monarch. The struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants outgrew the scale of internal Austrian affairs, as the pope and some other European Catholic powers became increasingly interested in it after the Protestant political victories. Due to the described circumstances, the Carniolan provincial assembly became a matter of international attention at the end of the 16th century. As the throne was succeeded by Charles’ strictly Catholic son, archduke Ferdinand, Protestant estates experienced less fortunate times. Eventually the Carniolan assembly agreed to pay hereditary homage, without the archduke’s promise of confessional concessions. The prince proceeded with his gradual counter-reformation, expelled the Protestants, and brought the estates of hereditary lands under his control.

Henceforth the era of the so-called confessional absolutism began. The protestant nobility was finally expelled in 1628, an action which changed the structure of the estates.

Although defeated in the confessional struggle, the provincial assembly continued its existence throughout the 17th and 18th century. This paper focuses on the estates’ point of view on provincial constitution, confessional order, and politics in general. Further it is its aim to present the impact of foreign affairs on the Carniolan provincial assembly and its echo in the international diplomatic circles.

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Meta Kordiš PhD Candidate (Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana), Ljubljana, Slovenia meta_atem@yahoo.co.uk

MARIO MARZIDOVŠEK – “THE HEART” OF THE ŠTAJERSKA/ STYRIA ALTERNATIVE SCENE IN THE 1980S. Mario Marzidovšek (1961–2011) was one of the most radical and perspicacious experimental musicians and a Slovenian auditory, performance, and visual artist in the 1980s, yet today he is almost unknown to professionals, let alone the general public. However, in the retrospective memory and awareness of some of his contemporaries who are active in the field of academia, music, and visual arts Marzidovšek is considered a genius. As a musician he was “rehabilitated” with the publication of the record Mario Marzidovšek – Unlimitive/Marburg (Monofonika 2011), and its accompanying musical events. As a visual and performance artist he was presented at the exhibition Us, you, them. Fragments of the 1980s Alternative Practices in Maribor (Maribor Art Gallery 2013).

In the early 1980s Marzidovšek started his art activities and established a non-profit cassette label Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium (MML) in Slovenska Bistrica, a small town in the north-east of Slovenia. His creative explosion in different alternative art practices was as radical and enigmatic as his silence from the early 1990s until his dubious death in 2011. Moreover he was important for Slovenia’s north-eastern alternative scene as an organizer and as a music producer. It seems only he was able to connect alternative musicians and artists from the Maribor and Celje regions in 1985. Today Marzidovšek is more known among connoisseurs and fans for his music and cassette production work rather than for his visual and performance art. The reason is quite simple: at the end of the 1980s he destroyed most of his visual works, apart from the ones he had donated to friends or sent through a postal art network around the world. His often provocative performances, numerous (spontaneous) street happenings, and public space interventions were seldom documented. He claimed he was artistically influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Dynamism, Constructivism, Expressionism, Surrealism, experimental techniques, and New Image. Yet he was manly fascinated by conceptual art and Dada. His strongest expression was in graphic arts (xerox technique), manly in the production of collages, photographs, graphic design, posters, cassette covers that manifested in his cassette postproduction, and promotion, mail art as well as in his performances. He was also active in literature, writing visual, concrete, and Dadaist poetry. Finally, he wrote several articles and essays on music and avant-garde arts. He did all that and more having no formal visual arts or music education, let alone in humanities!

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Tina Košir Mazi PhD Candidate (Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) Aljaževa 28, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia tina.kosir@gmail.com

TRANSFORMING THE DESTRUCTIVE FORCES THROUGH RITUAL, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART THE CASE OF NON-DUAL KASHMIR S´AIVISM In medieval Kashmir (between the 8th and 13th Century) several schools of philosophy and mysticism, today known under the common denominator of non-dual Kashmir Śaivism, developed on the basis of tantric/a-gamic sources. The medieval Tantras and Agamas were scriptures considered as divine revelation by their followers. However, the tantric tradition boldly challenged the commonly accepted social and religious norms of the time by its autonomous iconography and liturgy of transgressive sacrality. By evoking the fierce gods and goddesses, the forces believed to be destructive and impure by the orthodox tradition, the tantrics aimed at transforming them in a ritual procedure akin to alchemy. Performing their rituals at places related to disintegration, such as cemetery grounds, and worshipping Śiva, the god of death and destruction, the tantric adepts tried to transcend human aversion towards decline, envisioning it as equally divine as creation and maintenance of the status quo. Through the development of the non-dual Kashmir Śaivism, the rudimental external rituals were internalized in a form of meditative mystical practices. In the philosophy of non-dual Kashmir Śaivism, the destructive forces were explained as abstract principles and included in an all-encompassing ontological vision of an integral monism. The philosophy reached its peak in the works of Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020), who had synthesized it in a magnificent opus including an influential aesthetic theory. In his philosophy of art, Abhinavagupta discussed a burning issue of medieval Indian aesthetics: how is it possible that unpleasant feelings, such as fear, anger, sorrow, and disgust, portrayed in and evoked by a work of art are transformed into aesthetic delight through an aesthetic experience. Non-dual Kashmir Śaivism can thus serve as a valuable example of how the forces of decline and destruction can be ascribed with a constructive and even sacred function in ritual, philosophy, and art.

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Simona Kostanjšek Brglez Assistant Researcher and PhD Candidate France Stele Institute of Art History Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2, PO Box 306, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia simona.kostanjsek@gmail.com/skbrglez@zrc-sazu.si

THE MOTIF OF THE RAPE OF EUROPA IN SLOVENIAN ART IN THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY The story of the princess who was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull and gave the name to our continent has inspired various artists from different fields throughout all periods of art. The motif of the Rape of Europa belongs (in addition to Leda and the Swan, Daphne and Apollo, and the Judgment of Paris) to one of the most commonly depicted ancient myths in the art of the 20th century. The aforementioned motifs have often been used as a means of expressing specific contents; at the depiction of Europe in the 20th century we can repeatedly count on the personal or the current socio-political context - like in the works of Max Beckmann (1933) or Johannes Grützke (1984).

Research showed that the motif of Europa in the Slovenian art of the last and current century is very common. It attracted many artists, but their art work has not received thorough research. Paintings, graphics and plastics (two of them are public statues), and various depictions of Europa with the bull will be treated in this paper. Beside the established artists, such as Vladimir Makuc, France Kralj, and Stojan Batič, the paper will also include some of the lesser known artists (among others: Rok Zelenko, Gorazd Satler, and Mik Simčič). The works will be presented from the perspective of the formal expression, any eventual direct or indirect influence of the Ovid’s Metamorphoses will be noted, and the relationship between the text and the image will be treated comparatively. The emphasis will stay on the substantive interpretation of the motif and on the question of innovation by individual artists throughout the research.

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Ana Krevelj PhD Candidate (Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) Gorjančeva ulica 14, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ana.krevelj@gmail.com

ANIMAL ICONOGRAPHY IN BESTIARY TRADITION, ITS DECLINE AND TRANSFORMATION IN MODERN ERA Animals have been the subject of art from the time that man started to draw, engrave, and carve. They have been and are almost as important to man as man himself. As a result, animals have been a constant and integral part of our culture throughout history.

However we can still observe rises and declines of animals’ popularity in art, as well as metamorphoses in their symbolic meanings.

My presentation will focus on one of the most important periods of animal iconography in art history – the late middle ages and the Bestiary tradition, its decline, and transformation. Bestiaries or “books of beasts” reached their peak in western European art between the 12th and 14th century and are a result of constant complementarity of sources from antiquity onwards. They have a common predecessor called Physiologus, a didactic text, compiled in Greek, dated varying from the 2nd till the 4th century by an unknown author. Physiologus was composed of around 40 chapters representing mainly animals, birds, mythical beasts, and some plants and stones. The natural history and illustration of each animal was usually accompanied by a moral lesson – the appearance, behavior or characteristics of a certain animal were interpreted as an allegory of Good or Evil, Christ or Satan, etc. Through the centuries it was translated into many European and middle-eastern languages and thus became widely known and highly popular. Bestiaries not only expanded and enriched the variety of animals known and their significances, but also by including texts from other non-religious sources they moved further towards modern zoology or transformed into love poetry. Illustrations of animals usually complement the text or the description in the text served the illuminator as an instruction on how to depict a certain animal. Richly decorated and colorful illustrations had especially great influence on medieval ecclesiastical art, but also on art up to the present day.

After their almost complete disappearance at the beginning of the new era, Bestiaries never reappeared in their original form, but the foundation of animal iconography established in bestiaries lived on – the iconography of some animals transformed or was revived in different occasions by various periods and artists. With the development of science, animals found a new role in encyclopedias and some of them even disappeared. My presentation will demonstrate how perception of animal iconography based on the Bestiary tradition changed through different periods of art history and why some animals gained in popularity while others became forgotten.

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Theresa A. Kutasz PhD Candidate Department of Art History, The Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A. tak228@psu.edu

A HELLENISTIC SKYSCRAPER RESURRECTIONS AND RE-CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE LOST PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY “A great lighthouse, 370 feet high, looking like a New York skyscraper, rose from the island of Pharos.”

This is how Geoffrey Parsons described the Lighthouse at Alexandria in 1934. The third-century BCE lighthouse, or Pharos, destroyed in the fourteenth century, was both functional and symbolic in its time, and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. When an original structure is lost to living memory, the recreation of the structure falls to the imagination of artists who, consciously or not, are influenced by their own environments and architectural experiences. I hope to show how a complex historical process of give and take—in this case, involving modern builders who embraced an ancient model for their own soaring structures— inspired a backward projection of modern ideals onto the imagined image of the ancient structure itself, reminding us that the past is continually revised and re-invented to serve our constantly changing needs.

In this paper, I shall examine the slow decline and eventual loss of the Pharos, and how that loss has manifest in artists’ ever changing attempts to represent the structure. I will draw upon representations created by Martin van Heemskerck, Jansson Jansonius, Mario Larrinaga, Salvador Dali, and others, discussing their images as highly cultural and period specific conceptualizations of how architecture might embody the ideas of height and light. My focus will be on the imaginations of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century architects and their patrons. The ideas of power, height, and light embodied in the Pharos were reflected in the values which early skyscraper architects sought to capture and put to work in their own building projects. I shall consider structures such as the Banker’s Trust, Woolworth, and Niagara Mohawk Buildings (all in New York State) among other examples of the Pharos’ modern architectural legacy. But this is only half of the story. In the second part of my paper, I shall examine the reverse-historical process, as the appearance of these new, Pharos-inspired structures on the skylines of New York, Buffalo, and Chicago influenced the ways that the ancient Pharos was conceptualized. In this way, the Lighthouse of Alexandria underwent its own kind of imaginative remodeling, as reconstructions of its appearance borrowed elements of the modern skyscraper. The long decline and eventual loss of the physical structure of the Pharos became almost incidental as the idea of the wonder superseded concrete knowledge of the historic building in its metamorphosis and rebirth in the skyscrapers and illustrations of the 20th century.

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Martina Malešič, PhD Researcher Department of Art History Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia martina.malesic@ff.uni-lj.si

SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURE AFTER 1948 – FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST Political, economic, and social changes that occurred after the dispute of Yugoslavia with Informbiro and its expulsion from the communist bloc in 1948 were also reflected in architecture. Yugoslav architects immediately after the end of WWII, when Yugoslavia became part of communist bloc, focused on ideologically appropriate and politically desirable style of socialist realism. Their projects followed the monumentality of Soviet examples. After 1948, they refused socialist realism and once again accepted modernism. They continued in the so-called “prolonged functionalism”, that is in the modern international style from the interbellum period, which was based on the influence of Le Corbusier, Bauhaus, and principles of CIAM. Modern architecture as the dominant architectural style of the West became one of the most important and especially visual tools of the separation of Yugoslavia from the Communist Eastern Bloc countries and its integration with the West.

The transformation of styles, the decline of socialist realism, and the revival of modernism in Yugoslav architecture after 1948 are most commonly described by scientific literature in such a clear-cut way. However, was this transition really so distinct? How did it occur in Slovenian architecture? Which Slovenian architectural projects of that time could be described as social realist and which as modernist? What are the most obvious differences? In the lecture I will analyse the transformation described above, compare the actual projects, and remark on changes in the definitions of professional literature.

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Eliška Mazalanová, M.A. Institute of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague Palkovičova 11, 821 08 Bratislava, Slovakia eliska.m@gmail.com

TOGETHER WITH THE AUDIENCE THE REBIRTH OF THE CONCEPT OF PARTICIPATION The phenomenon of an artist’s collaboration with an audience, whether it is interactive or participatory art or simply the conceptualization of the audience as such, is one of the issues of my doctoral research. I concentrate on the art of former Czechoslovakia as a case study within the situation of the so called eastern block from the second half of the 20th century.

The phenomenon became an issue of the early avant-garde artists but was not quite actualized and fully elaborated until the 1960s. This principle of the open creative process or structure of artwork has been brought back, starting in the 1990s until today.

In this conference paper I would like to rethink those rebirths of the conceptions of collaboration with an audience in different periods of the 20th century. The intention is to survey their circumstances in the sphere of art in reference to the development of modernism and to analyze different motivations as well as interpretations of this artistic motive with regard to different social context and political situation of particular periods.

The so called “golden sixties” are traditionally perceived as a period of progress, when many ideas and strategies of contemporary art were established. In Czechoslovakia, the so called thaw of political and ideological oppression of the communist party allowed the perception of these progressive conceptions in local art production. On the other hand, we can recognize this period as an intensification of the sensation of decline and crisis. It is distinctive, with a critique of social arrangement and institutions and with aspirations of its transformation, which escalated in demonstrations and rebellions of students and intellectuals. Many of the artistic strategies of the 1960s, including those in the center of my interest, were integral element of this critique. Meanwhile in the capitalist “world” they rebelled against the alienating effect of the spectacle as defined by Guy Debord, in the socialist “world” they attempted to oppose the dulling influence of compulsory engagement and collectivism.

The last decade of the 20th century is on the other hand the period of transformation of the eastern bloc, while the negative impact of neoliberalism is denoted in the west. In the visual arts, several conceptions of the 1960s have been actualized, among them, the concentration on the audience, identified as relational aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud.

Participation as one of the dominant issues of art is directly linked by Claire Bishop with the period of political upheaval and the efforts for social change.

The aim of my paper is to stimulate a discussion about the tendency toward collaboration within the premise of the rebirth of artistic concept as well as to reflect its gaining of currency in the period of crisis.

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Katra Meke Assistant Researcher and PhD Candidate Department of Art History Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia katra.jerman@ff.uni-lj.si

SEICENTO – THE DECLINE OF VENETIAN PAINTING? THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PERCEPTION AND RECEPTION THROUGH THE CENTURIES If the Venetian cinquecento is dogmatically considered as the golden age of painting in art history, with Tizian, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Bassano as its main protagonists, and settecento as the new renaissance with Giambattista Tiepolo as its highest point, a slightly different picture is painted for the Venetian seicento in the art history, historiography, and critical tradition. The latter was considered as a “bad moment” or a “period of decline” in Venetian painting from the 18th century to the 1980s.

Intriguingly, contemporary writers such as Carlo Ridolfi (Le meraviglie dell’arte: ovvero le vite degli illustri pittori veneti e dello stato, 1648) and Marco Boschini (La carta de navegar pittoresco, 1660; Le ricche minere della pittura veneziana, 1674) portray these artists in a very positive manner – as the able heirs of the great cinquecento masters.

Only a century later Antonio Maria Zanetti (Descrizione de tutte le pubbliche pitture della citta di Venezia e isole circonvicine: o sia rinovazione delle Ricche minere di Marco Boschini..., 1733; Della pittura veneziana e delle opere pubbliche de’veneziani maestri, 1771) negatively labels those same artists as “manierists” and their era as the “period of decay”. This mentality is still present in Luigi Lanzi’s history of Italian painting (Storia pittorica dell’Italia, 1796) and the same notably negative attitude can be observed in Roberto Longhi’s writings (Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana, 1946). We have to wait until 1981 for Rodolfo Pallucchini’s review of the Venetian 17th century painting, composed of two volumes, (La pittura veneziana del Seicento, 1981) when Venetian seicento painters regained their reputation and their significant role in the history of painting.

I would like to discuss the reception and perception of Venetian seicento painting through the centuries based on selected texts and to indicate different circumstances that contributed to the negative judgment of the painters, who in fact left a considerable footprint in the development of Venetian painting.

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Dragana Modrić PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Humanities University of Split Donje Glavice 84, 21230 Sinj, Croatia dragana.modric@gmail.com

SURVIVAL TOOLS - POLITICAL STRATEGIES IN THE COMMUNITY ARTWORK OF ANDREJA KULUNČIĆ The media’s control of information, as well as the inaccessibility to opportunity in the educational system and skill acquisition within the matrix of the neoliberal capitalism, leads to people’s conversion into passive observers. Given that political power is in the hands of the ruling minority, the problem of an equitable social redistribution arises.

Art as an activity, Ranciere argues, can affect a more equitable social distribution and become a powerful instrument in the hands of those who want a new ethical order. The field of battle is unquestionably of a political nature, and therefore requires the consideration of a broader context.

The artist Andreja Kulunčić deals precisely with these subjects, searching for an alternative to the existing hegemonic social model in the socialist legacy and the concepts of self-management and direct democracy. Her art projects are collaborative social experiments creating a platform through which the exchange of experiences and selforganizational skills is enabled. The artistic/political strategies employed are important with regard to encouraging citizens to assume responsibility in sociopolitical processes.

Through her work, Andreja Kulunčić deconstructs the liberal democracy myth as the space of pluralistic harmony and consensus, at the same time exposing the hegemonic system which generates permanent inequality. The current crises (Greece, Spain) as well as resistance movements all around the world (the occupy movement, the Indignados) can be viewed as the twilight of an outdated, unfair system. On the other hand, however, we are witness to its resilience and great absorption and transformational capabilities. If we agree with Heraclitus’s assertion that one cannot step into the same river twice, it remains to be seen how values from one sociohistorical context can be relevant today, and if the values, concepts, and strategies of a socialist legacy can mobilize the community, thus creating preconditions for a transformation or, eventually, a renaissance.

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Katarina Mohar Assistant Researcher and PhD Candidate France Stele Institute of Art History Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2, PO Box 306, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia kmohar@zrc-sazu.si

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY IN THE STATE COMMISSIONED MONUMENTAL PAINTING OF SOCIALIST SLOVENIA Among the typical images of groups of workers and Partisans, predominating in artwork from the first post war decades, several modified elements originally belonging to Christian imagery can be noted. Artists and commissioners adapted select established Christian motifs to the new socio-political circumstances and thus transformed them into conveyers of aspects of the new socialist reality (e.g. Saint Christopher carrying Christ altered into a personification of Yugoslavia, the early Christian Orant as the initiator of rebellion during the National Liberation War).

The paper will focus on works by some of the most prominent Slovenian artists who created in the medium of monumental pubic painting after World War 2, and analyses the role of Christian iconography in their oeuvres. Special attention will be given to works

by Slavko Pengov, a fresco painter initially creating almost exclusively for the Church who later became the foremost painter favored for the most important and representative Republic and State commissions after World War 2 (e. g. Tito’s Villa in Bled, Central Committee of the League of Communists in Belgrade, People’s Assembly of the People’s Republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana).

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Dunja Opatić PhD Candidate (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb), Zrnetićeva 6, Zagreb, Croatia dunjdunj@gmail.com

REAL AND REEL HORROR HOW NEWS IMAGINARY IN A STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY IMBUED THE RESURGENCE OF AMERICAN SPLATTER FILMS This paper analyzes the sub-genre of splatter horror films known under the moniker Torture Porn (the Saw franchise, Hostel I & II, Captivity, The Devil’s Rejects), which appeared in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is my contention that the news representations of the War on Terror, namely the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the subsequent discovery and proliferation of Abu Ghraib photographs and the Extraordinary Rendition Memo in the media influenced the resurgence of the splatter film genre in its new rendition, with an even more visceral imagery of torture and violence. The first wave of splatter films (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left) coincided with the first televised war – the war in Vietnam. The images of atrocities, for the first time, seeped directly into the living rooms of millions of Americans. The development of telecommunication technology made war news quicker to report and harder to control and censor by the military apparatus. The blame for the so-called Vietnam Syndrome – the withdrawal of public support for the U.S. military overseas endeavors – was put on the media for propagating brutal and “demoralizing” photographs and reports from the Vietnam front. The new cinematic horror genre – splatter – which appeared in America in the late sixties, informed by the newly acquired visual knowledge of violence and body mutilations executed by the American army, manifested the fear that the real monsters are not the distant “others” hiding in the jungles of Vietnam, but rather the Americans themselves. The military apparatus learned its lesson and upped its game of media censorship in the first Gulf War, under the guise of “clean,” orbital warfare.

The aesthetics of a “clean war” called for severe media restrictions on showing dead or wounded bodies to the public. Thus, in both wars that America waged with Iraq, news coverage of coffins returning from the battlefield was banned. The cruel reality of the human body in war, on mainstream television, was completely replaced with the spectacle of orbital warfare resembling fireworks. It was the relative freedom of the new media, i.e. the Internet, which enabled the discovery and facilitated the spread of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs to primetime television. The self-reflexive and extremely popular genre of Torture Porn, building upon tropes developed by its generic predecessor, sprung out from the double bind between the missing, unrepresented dead bodies and sexualized torture of the bodies of Iraqi detainees. Torture porn films express a very conscious desire of their directors to compensate for the visual sanitization of war with intensifying the visceral, as well as to question the grotesque illusion of power produced by torture.

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Nina Petek Assistant Researcher and Assistant at Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana AĹĄkerÄ?eva 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia nina.petek@ff.uni-lj.si

BETWEEN TRANSIENCE AND SEARCHING FOR LIBERATION BUDDHISM AND IMAGES OF JAPANESE AESTHETIC Every era of mankind, marked with gradients or falls, has always been a field of creative activity. Today, when the world is facing with the irrepressible development, human creativity exceeds the boundaries of common patterns, and at the same time searches for ways to make sense for its own existence and existence of the world which are too saturated with accumulation of spirituality and materialism. Asian philosophies in religious traditions, which are also importantly manifested through art, offer a way which gives fresh meaning to human existence. The strategies of art in Japan, which are essentially characterized by the philosophy of Buddhism, are not based on the naked appropriation of the art object, but the aesthetic experience and artistic activity are oriented towards adopting deeper, not-yet comprehended views, and at the same time towards accepting and respecting things as they are.

The manner of reaching liberation through art is an endless and incessant search for truth and oneness.

Buddhist thought mediated insight about the transience of all things and is oriented towards the acceptance of life in all forms, including death and decline. This is the highest value, called nirva-n.a, which is reached through the practice of yoga; it is the aesthetic pleasure of the world and the highest state of being. Here emerges the sensation of special beauty, which enables practitioners to exceed suffering and creates a space for liberation.

Spiritual tradition in Japan under the influence of Buddhism created important aesthetic concepts like yu-gen, sabi, aware, mono no aware, which are defined by objective character (with a bunch of images, metaphors, and styles); and according to subjective criteria they express the appearance of individual feelings, which are linked with mood, state of consciousness, or atmosphere. The art form and aesthetic sensibility point to an important soteriological guideline, which is most clearly represented in the connection between artistic creations and nature. The most recognizable Japanese aesthetic ideal is transience; through which insight a special attitude towards the world was weaved, based on respecting all things; this way it is possible to perceive a special balance and deep serenity in spite of permanent awareness about the fleeting nature of everything.

Buddhism offers a chance for the rebirth of values, goals, and attitudes, which is the foundation for endeavoring to liberate oneself from all worldly attachments. The 38

concepts of Japanese aesthetic transcend all historical eras and places and remain a timeless and always current expression of attitude towards the world, which is based on understanding all things in their essential nature. This is a dimension which is certainly indispensable, especially today.

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Ivana Podnar, PhD Prisavlje 8, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia ivanapodnar@yahoo.com

REAFFIRMATION OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM WITHIN THE CITY OF ZAGREB The social changes that occurred due to the establishment of an independent Croatia in 1991 also implied the introduction of a new symbolic system, in the context of the reaffirmation of the very identities that were less visible during the socialist period. The period after the WW2 in former Yugoslavia was marked by clearly separate functions of state and church institutions, whereas religious life took place in the private sphere of the individual and the family. Despite frequent criticism of the lack of religious freedom, in this period new religious buildings were erected that enriched the urban structure of new housing developments in Zagreb, although religious holidays were not publicly celebrated nor were religious symbols publicly displayed.

The moment of national independence marked a return to traditional social values: to patriotism and the church, which within the political discourse also advocated the idea of freedom in the specific times of the war that lasted to 1995. The decline of one political system is also accompanied by the decline of cultural and symbolic values that made that system visible in the fabric of the city. Radical termination was manifested not only in the physical transformation of the state, but also in the visual character of its capital.

Urban iconography seeks to answer the newly established ideological values – there is the highly intensive construction of new church buildings within the already defined urban structures, as well as within urban neighborhoods that are just emerging. The network of churches becomes very dense, and their towers are trying to regain their historical symbolic status.

Sacral architecture is accompanied by a public sculpture that is mostly dedicated to Cardinal Stepinac - a priest who was imprisoned during socialism and after the independence has become a symbol of resistance to communism, which was intensified after the 1998 when he was beatified. In addition to numerous sculptures of Stepinac, there are many monuments dedicated to Pope John Paul II, who visited Croatia on three occasions. His visits were not only an important political event, but also a symbolic confirmation of a newly acquired national identity whose symbolic capital relies heavily on church values.

Christian symbolism, through the processes of social retraditionalization, transforms the visual structure of the city, but the rebirth of iconographic motifs takes place in a completely different cultural context. This is the reason for the search for a new identity, a new visual language that would respond to the needs of the new era, with the continuous coexistence of historical and experimental forms.

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Annabelle Ruiz PhD candidate Louis Lumie`re University, Lyon 2., France annabelle.ruiz12@yahoo.fr

THE GORGON MEDUSA METAMORPHOSES FROM A DECLINING PICTORIAL MOTIF TO REBIRTH INTO A CINEMATOGRAPHIC MOTIF (END OF THE 19TH CENTURY, BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY) The feminine Gorgon Medusa figure, which comes from Greco-Roman mythology and which inspired a great number of artists, originated from a range of pictorial movements.

Already being in itself a proper metamorphosis within the story, this particular iconographic motif was ideal for assuming various forms and meanings throughout centuries.

At the end of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Medusa influenced symbolist painters. Enigmatic, as she can be in the Franz Von Stuck’s Medusa (1892) and in the Jean Delville’s Méduse (1893), as well as disturbing, in the Carlos Schwabe’s watercolour Medusa (1895) and in the Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer’s painting Méduse ou Vague furieuse (1897), Medusa embodies several aspects of her mythological history. Besides, usual allegoric symbols such as violent death, stone gaze, and the scream have helped in this case to give an aesthetic plurality to this iconographic motif.

Nonetheless, the arrival of the First World War and the Roaring Twenties announced altogether the mythological figure’s decline in the pictorial medium. A few painters are only interested in the power of Medusa’s hypnotic gaze; these are the French Gustav Adolf Mossa (La Gorgone, 1917) and the Russians Alexei Von Jawlenski (Te te de Femme Méduse, Lumie`re et ombre, 1923) and Nicholas Kalmakoff (Medusa, 1924).

The following decades sign the end of this motif in pictorial art. The rebirth of the Medusean motif took place in the early sixties but in a different medium: cinema. In the fantastic movie The Gorgon (1964) directed by Terence Fisher, Medusa’s representation is somehow metamorphosed; In fact, the main feminine character is changed into Medusa at full moon as if she were a werewolf. The metamorphosis will continue due to special effects (Stop Motion, 3D) in the Desmond Davis’ and Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010). So, cinematographic art breathes life into this mythic creature, demonstrating a real aesthetic and symbolic revival.

Thus, our proposal is to think about the way through which the iconographic motif of the Gorgon Medusa, most appreciated by the Symbolists, declined and vanished totally for several decades. We will finally analyses within cinema its aesthetic and symbolic rebirth throughout various film clips mentioned above.

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Tibor Rutar PhD Candidate Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Zaloška cesta 232A, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia tibor.rutar@gmail.com

WHAT IS LEFT OF HISTORICAL MATERIALISM TODAY? Canonical historical materialism, as sketched-out by Karl Marx in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, is one of the most famous (and famously criticized) grand accounts of how societies emerge, develop, and die off. The main thesis of this materialist conception of history is, as Marx writes in the Preface, the following: the development of productive forces, i.e. technology, tools etc., becomes so intense at a certain point that these dynamic productive forces come into conflict with the existing stagnating social relations of production, ensuing a generalized social crisis. The crisis can only be resolved by the emergence of a new set of social relations of production, i.e. a new mode of production, that are more conducive to the developing forces of production. Thus we have the usual story of the necessary transitioning from the least productive society to the most: from primitive communism to slaveholding societies through feudalism, capitalism and, lastly, to socialism. This is the classical version that was first systematically developed by Friedrich Engels after Marx’s death in his Anti-Dühring (1877) and popularized by Georgi Plekhanov in Materialist Conception of History and Karl Kautsky (1897) in Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History (1906). Its most scientifically sophisticated expression is Gerald Cohen’s Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence (1978).

The purpose of my paper is two-fold. Firstly, it is to show that canonical historical materialism is a theory of history that should be abandoned. It is, as critics rightly argue, teleologically and technologically determinist. However, I think this doesn’t spell the end of the Marxian theory of societal transitioning. Therefore secondly, and I think more importantly, I wish to show that we can reconstruct – on the basis of some of Marx’s fragmentary claims in Capital and Grundrisse – a historical materialism that avoids the pitfalls of its canonical expression, yet still aids us in a distinctly materialist understanding of the historical development of social life. I will argue for a “weaker” historical materialism that dispenses with the claim that there exists a universal tendency for social agents to develop their forces of production, and makes class struggle the main mechanism of societal transitions. Such a theory of history is, I hope to show, empirically and theoretically legitimate, and is of great importance for sociology and historiography.

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Rainer Schützeichel PhD Candidate ETH Zurich, Department of Architecture Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) Chair for the History of Urban Design Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, HIL D 74.3, CH–8093 Zurich, Switzerland rainer.schuetzeichel@gta.arch.ethz.ch

REDISCOVERY AS A KEY TO MODERNIZATION THE ROLE OF THE YEARS “AROUND 1800” IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURAL THEORY IN GERMANY The architecture of the years “around 1800” was a main topic of traditionalistic German architectural theory in the beginning of the 20th century. These mainly vernacular buildings were considered as the last expressions of a stylistic unity – a return to the design principles seen as typical for these years was recognized as key to architectural reform and modernization. The years “around 1800” were notably a point of reference for emancipatory endeavors from 19th century historicism. An important voice in the initial debate was the architect Paul Mebes, who in 1908 published his most influential and widely received book Um 1800. Traditionalistic theory was influenced by studies of vernacular building types that seemed suitable for case studies of traditional building and trade, such as the farmhouse, because remains of non-academic architecture were assumed to be handed down in the countryside. These examinations shed light on a multitude of regional examples of architecture. In addition to international trends in architecture that were also taken into consideration – such as the “English house”, which, only a few years before the appearance of Mebes’ book, had effectively been promoted by Hermann Muthesius – traditionalistic topics were of significant importance in the debates on a potential reform of architecture and at the same time a rebirth of stylistic unity. In the light of the rediscovery of the years “around 1800”, the proposed contribution analyses points of intersection between the architectural theory of Herman Sörgel (1885–1952) and the traditionalistic approach. The contribution aims at an inductive study and will examine the understanding of the characteristics of these specific years in the broader context that is defined by early 20th century architectural theory. Sörgel wrote numerous essays on architectural developments and criticism of contemporary culture, and he published his main theoretical work Architektur-Ästhetik in 1918, with which he was highly successful in the immediate post-war years. Therein, he formulated a kind of a practical recommendation for architects to consider, for instance, the site (genius loci), materiality, and other issues that allow links to main topics of traditionalistic architectural theory. The study of the reception of the years “around 1800” will offer a historical insight into the attitude of architects in the early 20th century towards an epoch that – according to protagonists of the traditionalistic approach – had been neglected by the preceding generations of architects during most of the 19th century.

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Andra Silapētere PhD Candidate (Department of History and Theory of Art and Culture, Art Academy of Latvia, Riga) Maskavas street 256, Riga, LV – 1063, Latvia silapetereandra@gmail.com

“THE EXILE EFFECT” LATVIAN EXILE ART IN THE UNITED STATES 1948–1970 Scholars have seen the Latvian and Baltic State art history as the point of interests regarding its development during the Soviet period, but exiled artists have been generally marginalized or forgotten by art historians. The proposed paper for the conference offers a case study recuperating the history of Latvian exile painting in the United States during the first two decades after entering the US. The focus of the paper is the qualities and aesthetics of the artistic language shaped by the exile effect – politically determined separation, new life conditions, social changes, feeling of unbelonging, shared historical past, sentiment, and interaction with a dominating culture.

The proposed paper brings in to alignment the Latvian artists who received their artistic education in Latvia from 1922–1944, but were forced to become refugees due to the dramatic events of World War II as the Soviet army entered the territory of Latvia in 1944 and Latvia became part of the Soviet Union. The purpose of this research is to study artists who emigrated from Latvia in 1944 and after the period in refugee camps in Germany (1944–1950) found their new homeland in the United States. Politically determined separation from Latvia marks a decline in their creative work (sentiment, memories, loss), but the dynamic US postbellum art scene demanded reconsideration of previous viewpoints and national art school values, bringing in to account understanding of the New World.

In this paper I argue that the Latvian exile art heritage can be understood as the marginality of postbellum modernism being constantly in-between two cultures. The study of the thematic, iconographic, and stylistics of postbellum art movements in the US leads to understanding of Latvian exile painting and its developed aesthetics of improvisation - exiled artists, using dominating art movements and combining them with vernacular context can be seen as outsider artists beyond the environment in which modernity was defined.

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Ines Unetič, PhD Researcher Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ines.unetic@ff.uni-lj.si

THE HISTORICAL IN EUROPEAN GARDEN ART OF THE LATE 18TH AND EARLY 19TH CENTURY The 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century was a period of many social, political, and economic changes that were reflected in a new culture, philosophy, and comprehension of the human space (that humans actively form). This was also a period of transition from baroque to landscape garden style.

In this period the baroque formal garden designs start to change – they increasingly became a product of variété, a need to add something new, interesting, and exciting. On the other hand the importance of nature in this time grew greater, which can be seen in the soft lines of new landscape designs. Linkage in both garden styles was in this transitional time greater than we can imagine, as they had a similar mental scheme (influenced by variété) and usually coexisted in the same space (due to progressive changes of the garden spaces). Interesting motifs of this stage of the garden art were constructed elements that derived from the past or the imaginary world. Smaller historical architecture in such a manner began to complete the gardens and had different roles: visual (as staffage that build a prospect of garden), sentimental (to agitate different feelings of the visitors, to remind of same era, of literature or of importance of natural), and patriotic or nationalistic (to remind about the success of land or an individual).

These historical elements in the gardens of the 18th and the 19th century point to a rebirth of motifs from the past and display a decline and metamorphosis of the political system and society. In various European countries they had a different significance and image; In England they liked to use gothic or Palladian architecture in gardens, meanwhile in France they emphasized natural architecture and enjoyed in motifs from the Far East, and in Germany they strove to raise national consciousness, etc. The gardens of that time – although today comprehended as a demonstrator of new social and political changes – become spaces often understandable only to a handful of people and in many parts of Europe a spaces of somehow altered prestige garden celebrations – each of which is a reminiscence of former absolutistic courts.

In my contribution I would like to demonstrate same historical motifs in designed gardens of the late 18th and early 19th century in Europe (in English, French, German and present Slovenian territory) and I would try to present their role and significance in the society of that period.

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Ivana Nina Unković, M.A. PhD Candidate (Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb), Researcher The Scientific Research Institute of the Faculty of Arts Bratovševa ploščad 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ivana.unkovic@ff.uni-lj.si

THE UNIFICATION OF RESTORATION WORK WITHIN CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES – CROATIA’S EXAMPLE After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Conservation Department of Dalmatia in Split recognized the need for creating inventory and preserving movable heritage in collaboration with restorers.

This professional relationship developed from 1925 until 1932 guided by the head conservator Ljubo Karaman in collaboration with Slovenian restorer/painter Matej Sternen and Croatian restorer Ferdo Goglia. Ljubo Karaman starts to differentiate the analysis approach of the works of art on the basis of restoration work results.

This work will present the concept of relationship between the restorer and conservator, as well as provide insight into development and motive for such relationship during the aforementioned time period. (DECLINE) The restoration profession in the period just before the 2nd World War starts to be perceived not only as a craft but as a scientific field, which can give new information about the typology of master workshops.

Karaman’s scientific conclusion was that only through efficient collaboration between art historians and restorers can successful heritage protection be accomplished, guided by examples from Austria, Germany, Italy, and France where the field of technical conservation (encompassing architects, restorers specialized for collaboration with conservators) was successfully applied for a long period of time.

Such attitude and endeavors led to the inception of Restoration Department in Zagreb in 1946, when the chemist and painter Ferdo Goglia started to take thorough notes during the restoration procedure that later developed into the typological restoration documentation.

The acceptance of restoration as an inevitable meeting point between conservation practice and analysis of cultural heritage is evident through the present day. (METAMORPHOSIS) At the end of the paper, the evolution of the conservation terminology in the 2nd middle of the 20th century will be explained by referring mostly to the synergy of the conservation and restoration profession, and today’s flexible transit between these two closely related fields. Today the conservator or art historian can preserve/restore the work of art while the conservator-restorer has the theoretical possibility to approach its analysis. (REBIRTH)

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Cristina Vasconcelos de Almeida PhD Candidate (Goethe Universität Frankfurt) Collaborative Researcher Art History Institute of the Goethe University Frankfurt and of the New University Lisbon Ulmenstrasse 10, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany cristina.vasconcelos.a@gmail.com

A CRITICAL APPROACH TO THE CYCLES DECLINEMETAMORPHOSIS-REBIRTH IN THE WORK OF CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS I wish to address the theme of “Decline – Metamorphosis – Rebirth” from an art history perspective by probing into two main problematic threads the title of this conference indicates. One deals with the cycle “decline”/“rebirth” while the other focusses on “metamorphosis”. On the one hand I would like to challenge the idea that there are indeed periods of “rising” and/or “decline” in artistic creation. On the other hand I would like to present the issue of “metamorphosis” as being independent from a so called “decline”/“rebirth” cycle. Bearing this in mind I wish to depart from concrete artwork, presenting one or two case studies which undoubtedly serve as a basis for questioning the existence of the polarization between “rise” and “decline”, and one case study of an artistic creation (re)thinking the concept of “metamorphosis”.

In this context I will argue that taking “rise/(re)birth” and “decline/(re)death” cycles into account not only implies an aesthetical judgment which evidently changes, but also that blindly believing in the rightfulness of such judgment endangers artistic heritage.

In fact more often than not in view of such cycles the irreversible destruction of the artistic features has been called upon, causing the disappearance of what is seen as belonging to a “decline” phase and thus secondary to other features which are thought worthy of being preserved. As is widely acknowledged, practices linked to such line of thought have not only led to the loss of irrecoverable heritage but have also somewhat (re)created history, namely by (re)creating “pure” architectures that never were.

The case studies I have chosen support the points mentioned above and serve as departing points for discussion refer to contemporary artworks by artists who have been (re) thinking the above issues. By doing so these works of art override the present time of their making, plunging into different periods and leading the beholder to reflect upon historical phenomena and contexts as well as the meanings of cultural heritage and their (re)interpretations.

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Goran Vranešević PhD Candidate (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) Planina 23, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia goran.vranesevic@outlook.com

BACCHANIC REALISM In a fleeting note, Nietzsche explains that “Die Kunst [...] ist die große Ermöglicherin des Lebens, die große Verführerin zum Leben, das große Stimulans des Lebens.” It is not difficult to dismiss the statement as yet another of his many obscure allegories, but it is more productive to think about the consequences of this note. Every artistic act must namely also include a reflection of the idea of aesthetics. This is the question of the contextualization of artistic practice as such. The necessary work can be summarized under the following dilemma; Under what circumstances is it still possible to create realistic panoramas or Baroque portraits, if after Malevich’s Black Square and the reduction of art to the distance between the foreground and background, and Courbet’s L’origine du monde, which renders the thing itself visible, it is impossible to return to the unmarked painting of neutral motifs without being kitschy at the same time. What then leads to the decline and rise of periods, and how can art or any other form persist over time?

Questions that arise in this exposition are not irrelevant: what actually happens in this process? As with the phenomenon of a society whose truth becomes clear only in its contradictory nature, the collapse of periods is also linked to a change of viewpoint, but not by examining its material conditions. The range of periods or their lifespan may be anticipated, not empirically or rationally but speculatively. In this manner it is possible to talk about such a break only retroactively, but it would be unambitious to succumb to the usual conclusion, according to which the winner writes the history. Its essence is contained in the failure of the original intention. In other words, truly free acts are inverted into predestined behavior. This is the reason why the biographies of the masters of art are filled with allusions to their genius, which just needed a long enough life to unveil itself.

The background of such inspirations is personified in bacchantic motives, as they were conceived and depicted through the works of Ficino, Pico, and Michelangelo, i.e., a representation of a community’s ambitions, on the basis of which a modern conception of art emerged which is imbued by a concrete antagonism. Raphael’s last painting, Transfiguration, is clearly inscribed in such an idea of discordance in the work of art.

The lower half of the work is accumulated with despair, obsessive boys, porters, panicked students, and other representatives of the social margin and the Dionysian spirit, “the eternal primordial pain, the sole foundation of the world” (Nietzsche, The Birth of tragedy, p. 33). Out of this “appearance” a contradiction of the world arises as its reflection. This Apollonian vision of salvation is not of a Promethean nature, as knowledge is limited to the appropriate measure of things.

This schism simultaneously exposes the proximity between art and politics. Both practices are connected by a commitment to the sensual, as conceptualized by Ranciere.

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Such a sphere is filled with a series of diverse points of identification, such as (in) visibility, words and voice, space and time, etc. What unites them is their pretension to the common, which sets them apart from mechanisms of power. Both are therefore structured around the reconfiguration of individual matter (symbolic, spiritual, social, etc.). As already mentioned, such a transformation of borders and sharing capabilities is accompanied by bacchantic motifs which are permeated by a veil of mystery. The births and decay of periods occurs in such concealment. It is here, that Hegel detects the truth, not as an eternally inaccessible essence of things, but as a recognition of necessity, according to which what is seen as a cognitive obstacle to the truth turns out to be the truth itself.

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Asta Vrečko Assistant Researcher, PhD candidate Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana Kardeljeva ploščad 16, 1000 Ljubljana astica@gmail.com

REALISMS IN SLOVENIAN ART IN THE THIRTIES The reconstruction of society from the rubble of World War I and the instability of the thirties, marked by radical political change and the Great Depression, caused a reaction in different segments of society. In art this was also seen in the re-emergence and manifestation of realisms. Realism is commonly understood as the opposite of the Modern, but as a concept it should be distinguished from judging a painting to be realistic.

Slovenian and Yugoslav art followed these trends. Under the influence of the broader European and internal political situation this art also appealed to the concept of nationalism. The search for “our” national visual expression derives from the need for something original and specific to national art that will distinguish it from the national art of others. In this search Slovenian artists were influenced by their Croatian counterparts, mostly their teachers at the Zagreb academy of fine arts, French art, and Slovenian impressionism, which had already been established as “true” Slovenian art. All of this culminated in a style which is commonly known in Slovenian art history as color realism.

In my contribution I will argue that color realism contained the ingredients for a success which was built on a paradoxical idea that it was part of contemporaneous trends in European art, while at the same time being based on tradition in painting.

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Jure Vuga PhD candidate Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Kvedrova 16, 6000 Koper, Slovenia jurevug@yahoo.com

THE ELEMENTS OF ANCIENT MYSTERY CULTS AND THE NEOPLATONIC ALLEGORIES IN BOTTICELLI’S “PRIMAVERA” The article introduces a new Neoplatonic interpretation of Botticelli’s “Primavera” in the context of ancient mystery cults and the allegoric interpretation of ancient myths. By the Renaissance philosophers, the myths were perceived as metaphors with gnoseologic value, which can reveal the higher reality to the soul and awaken insight into the mysteries of “prisca theologia”. It is therefore possible to read the composition as a sacred allegory with a moral and eschatological meaning.

Zephyrus represents the generative spirit which brings the soul (Chloris) into being.

Another plausible explanation is that Zephyrus, the cosmic soul “Anima Mundi”, infuses life (the individual soul) into a material body (Chloris). Consequently flowers burst from her mouth. The fecundating breath (pneuma) is the symbolic equivalent of the incarnation of Logos. The embodied soul manifests itself as Flora, which sows flowers around herself, an allusion to the noble deeds which reflect her virtues.

Eros’s arrow inflames the soul with love and the divine enthusiasm “furor”, which incites the soul to seek the source of metaphysical beauty. The Graces personify the cyclic process of the purification of the soul and her advancement in consciousness from the love of physical bodies “Voluptas” and the care for the external beauty “Pulchritudo” towards the awakening of a modest soul, the personification of virtue, “Castitas”.

Mercury is dispersing the clouds, the veils that protect the celestial mysteries in which the ineffable God is shrouded. The sword gives him a connotation of a severe arbiter, who allows passage to the heaven only to a righteous soul. Venus resembles an ancient statue of Aphrodite from Afrodisia, a variation of the “Great Mother”, who embodies the bounty of cosmic Nature. Marked with a crescent moon on her chest, she represents the patroness of souls on their journey into the physical realm and back to the heaven. The branches of the myrtle bush grow from the earth in proximity of her feat, which provides a parallel with the theme of the tree of life. Venus is the representation “all antica” of Marsilio Ficino’s God-Love, identical with the notion of agápe-, which enables the union of the soul with god. “Primavera” is the only renaissance allegory in which the succession of figures is read from right to left in accordance with the daily progression of the sun from east to west, and bears therefore the characteristic of an initiation into a mystery cult.

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Wendy Wiertz PhD Candidate KU Leuven Erasmushuis Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 box 3313, 3000 Leuven, Belgium wendy.wiertz@arts.kuleuven.be

THE REBIRTH OF THE AMATEUR ARTIST THE EFFECT OF PAST OPINIONS ON THE AMATEUR ARTIST IN CURRENT RESEARCH In 1527, Il Cortegiano by Baldassare Castiglione was published. In his book, Castiglione depicted the ideal courtier. According to the author, aristocratic men and women should pursue the arts and music (Bermingham 2000). By the eighteenth century, the upper classes had produced (or were producing) numerous amateurs artists. These amateur artists were positively regarded, and they had the chance to show (or display) their works of art at prestigious official exhibitions (Guichard 2008; Rosenbaum 2010). The position of amateur artists, however, would completely change during the nineteenth century.

In 1827, at the end of his life, Goethe spoke dubiously about dilettantes: “It is simply the essence of dilettantes, not knowing the difficulties which are part of a matter and that they want to undertake something they do not have the power to do” (Goethe) (Eckermann 1986, 200). The negative connotations of the term ‘dilettantism’ and its practitioners only worsened during the nineteenth century. The term came to connote a level of mediocrity, domesticity, and lack of commitment and professionalism. It also became associated with volunteerism and the social hobbies of leisured woman (Heer in Gaze 1997, 72). Consequently, it became increasingly difficult for male and female amateurs to display their works of art (both fine and applied arts) at official exhibitions.

Their oeuvre was put in the margin of the formal circuit and generally forgotten. The attention of the public, critics, and art historians was exclusively turned to the superior, professional artist, who was preferably white and male.

Research in art history followed this nineteenth-century view. This process continued until the 1970s when the lives and oeuvres of (amateur) women artists were rediscovered, studied, and displayed. Since the 1980s, Belgian and Dutch art historians have rediscovered the female “dilettantes” of the preceding centuries. A few examples of expositions and publications of amateur artists are: Tamse 1977; Clément-Bodard 1983; Wake 1987; Clément-Bodard 1990; Deseyne 1997; Creusen 2007; Dion-Tenenbaum 2008; Nyssen 2008; Klarenbeek 2012; Wiertz 2013. The rebirth of the amateur artist is a fact.

This presentation sketches the historiographical tradition and how perceptions from the past influence current art historical research.

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Miha Zor PhD Candidate Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Hrastje 214, SI-4000 Kranj, Slovenia miha.zor@gmail.com

ICONOGRAPHICAL METAMORPHOSIS IN MANUSCRIPTS OF THE “ESTOIRE DEL SAINT GRAAL” (CA. 1275–CA. 1330) The paper will concentrate on 11 manuscripts of the first romance of the Lancelot-Graal cycle of Arthurian romances, produced between ca. 1275–ca. 1330.

With regard to the workshops in which they were made, they can be divided into four groups. Firstly, the episodes depicted will be compared inside these groups and, secondly, the comparison will cross the group-borders and thus note the distinctive characteristics of each workshop’s iconographical programme and execution, in as much as it is distinct or similar to others.

Each picture will be analyzed on three levels: textual, e.g. regarding the structure and composition of pictorial signs in which it is related (also in comparison to the literary text, e.g. verbal signs); the level of fabula, e.g. regarding the elements of content which are used in (or left out of) a depiction; and the level of story, e.g. regarding the different ways in which the elements of content (that is, fabula) are presented to the viewer. The main emphasis of the paper will be on the last two levels, since they are iconographically fundamental (the textual level has more to do with stylistic questions): iconographical changes in motifs may occur either on the level of the fabula (different elements of an episode are chosen to be depicted) or on the level of the story (the elements of the fabula are manipulated in different ways and the outcoming meaning thus differs).

Apart from the comparison of the Estoire manuscripts between themselves, some depictions will also be compared to similar images in other texts (e.g. Biblical) in order to explain how the meaning of a (generic) depiction may have changed because of changed (literary) context (e.g. images of vision, Holy Mass, debate between a man of faith and an unbeliever, etc.)

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International Conference for PhD Students DECLINE – METAMORPHOSIS – REBIRTH

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

Ljubljana, 18 – 20 September 2014