ART AND POLITICS: CASE-STUDIES FROM EASTERN
EUROPE
Art Institute Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas,
Lithuania October 26-27, 2006
Political art, art as a tool of power
and a hostage of authority – these questions are hard to escape when researching
Eastern European culture. The 20th century turned this region into a laboratory
of social engineering and political experiments where boundaries of artistic
practices have been tested too. Here one can easily find the most radical
examples of cultural production that flirts between art and politics, the magic
and failure of avant-garde utopia, the sharpest conflicts between ethics and
aesthetics. Thus contexts of art practices as well as political contents of
artistic strategies (rather than pure stylistic qualities and artistic values)
are under consideration in recent studies of Eastern Europe art
history.
An objective of the conference is to bring together different
case studies on art and politics in order to analyse a complex relationship
between artistic and political regimes as well as political meanings of art in
Soviet and Post-Soviet conditions. Participants are invited to consider the
following topics:
* Subversions of political art in non-democratic
state * Cultural policy and culture as resistance * In search of panacea:
resistance, transgression, appropriation * Critique of representation
and creating of new myths * Aesthetical norms and/or national style * Self
identities [autobiography, body, individual mythologies] in the sidelines of
regime * Ideological art and artistic ideologies.
Participants are
requested to submit their papers in the form of case studies using a particular
artifact, event or phenomena as a ground for research of a broader problem
focused on the varied intersections of art and politics. Presentations will be
limited to 20 minutes. A publication of conference proceedings is also
planned.
Abstracts (250-300 words) accompanied with short CV should be
sent to the address below by April 20, 2006. Accepted papers will be notified by
May 2, 2006.
Conference organiser: Art Institute, Vytautas Magnus
University, Kaunas, Lithuania
Academic Referees: Assoc. prof. Rasa
Zukien_ (Art Institute, VDU, Kaunas) Prof. Egidijus Aleksandravicius (VDU,
Kaunas) Prof. Vojtech Lahoda (Institute of Art History, Academy of Science of
the Czech Republic, Prague) Prof. Piotr Piotrowski (Institute of Art History,
A. Mickiewicz University, Poznan)
Coordinators: Linara Dovydaityte,
dr. Jurate Tutlyte.