Title of Contribution:

Time:

Academic insignia and ceremony in 20th and 21st century – spectacle, ritual, advertising

9:00

University / Faculty / Institute:

9:30

Academy of Applied Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague / Theory and History of Art

Abstract of the contribution:

link

The history of universities using specific ceremony, typical dress, both ritual and practical objects and even in some periods taking advantage of specific law status dates back to the middle ages. Nevertheless, academic insignia, gowns and ceremony in some form are to be seen at nowadays universities all over the country regardless if they are hundreds of years old like the Charles University or founded at the end of the 20th century.

Contextual approach to reflexion of the topic is still missing. We can perceive academic ceremony as a form of spectacle, dramatic show where it is as important to see as it is to be seen. Often, the viewers turn into active contributors of the show. Insignia play various parts in such settings, from the role of set piece or costume to substantial sign of hierarchy within the institution. From a Foucauldian perspective, we can see university as a power structure linked to broader discourse where knowledge and education create essential power, symbolically represented by the academic jewels.

From a different point of view, academic ceremony can be seen as a ritual originating in ancient initiation or transformational rituals. Religious background provides ritual objects with symbolic power. This power is reflected in not only material or historical, but above all in symbolical importance the insignia have for universities. Furthermore, academic gowns and insignia are meant to provide variety of information about institution, it’s approach to science and scientific fields themselves. The presentation of the university both to the academics and to the public is using visual strategies that can be also tracked in advertising in broader sense. Revision of historical tradition is important part of these strategies.

The contribution tries to define and elaborate theoretical approach to academic insignia and ceremony from various angles, offering broader perspective to understand their importance for contemporary and even future universities.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Changes in the influence of power structures on the creation of art in public space

9:30

University / Faculty / Institute:

10:00

Charles University / Catholic Theological Faculty / Institute of Christian Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

link

In my contribution, I want to focus on the influences that contributed to the art decoration of the Prague metro. I will focus on exploring the authoritarian structures that influenced the form of art in public space during the normalization period, on the topic of censorship, but also self-censorship. To what extent the artists tried to comply with the stated or presumed requirements of the client and on the other hand what freedom of artistic expression could be found in this system. Whether works such as Light Object by Václav Ciegler at the station Náměstí Míru could set a precedent for future approval of the artworks of the Prague Metro decoration. In the second part of the paper, I will focus on contemporary power dynamics affecting the appearance of metro stations after 1990 and the planned artistic aspects of the newly built metro D stations.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The Architectural Illusion Of Edoardo Tresoldi.

The reconstruction of the Basilica of Siponto

10:00

10:30

University / Faculty / Institute:

University of Salento, Lecce, Italy / Department of Cultural Heritage

Abstract of the contribution:

link

In the fourth century in Siponto (today Manfredonia, Puglia – Italy), the early Christian Basilica of Santa Maria was built. Almost a thousand years ago it disappeared, leaving only ruins in today's archaeological park. The remains of the early Christian basilica revealed the plan with three naves and a semicircular apse. The Ministry of Tourism commissioned Edoardo Tresoldi, a young Italian artist born in 1987, to redevelop the site in 2016. Tresoldi has carried out research on materials, history and the site, supported by a team of scholars who followed him in the realization of the work. The project for the Basilica, entitled Where art reconstructs time, is obtained through metal wefts that intertwine in the air presumably reconstructing the original spaces, complete with columns, capitals and trusses. With this proposal, I will try to highlight the highly innovative character of the architectural restoration proposed by the young artist, already named by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential under-30s in the world. He himself speaks about his architecture as metaphysical ruins. They are a further stage in the architectural life cycle: on the one hand they recount the languages of the original architecture, on the other they accompany the visitor in an authentic emotional experience of the space, contaminated by the surrounding landscape. The transparency of the wire mesh offers to the viewer an experience of interpenetration between past and present. The artwork becomes the modeling of the place and gives it a scenic value, a theatrical backdrop designed to live it. The Tresoldi’s Basilica of Siponto is an illusory architecture, present for volume, absent for material. The illusion of Tresoldi's architecture, implemented through the re-enactment of the lost geometries of partially erased architecture, builds a real bridge with the past, proposing at the same time an encounter with the experience of contemporary art.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

From Prague to Rome: the abstract painting of Josef Istler and Achille Perilli

11:00

University / Faculty / Institute:

11:30

Charles University / Faculty of Arts

Abstract of the contribution:

link

My contribution is based on my recent article A Journey from Prague to Rome published in the exhibition catalogue Angelo Maria Ripellino. Prague was more Beautiful the Rome (Museum Kampa, Prague 2019), where I analyzed some aspects of the book History of Contemporary Czech Poetry (Rome, 1950) written by Angelo Maria Ripellino and dedicated to the Czech poetry and art. I focused on the drawings exhibition of Czechs Teige, Smetana, Hudeček, Lhoták and Istler organized by Italian painter Achille Perilli (Rome 1927-) in the gallery-bookshop L’ Age d’Or with the presentation of Ripellino’ s book. It was unique event, for the first time the members of Group 42, Group Ra and Karel Teige exhibited in Rome.

Among these artists who were present in Italy, Josef Istler (Praha 1919-2000) was only one to experiment the abstract forms similar way as Perilli and his group Forma 1. In this contribution I focus on comparison between the abstract geometric painting of Perilli and the surrealistic painting tending to Art Informel of Istler to verify their affinities. These artists started from the Cubo- expressionism, but after 1946 both of them decided to cut off from the formal and spiritual tradition of the first European avant-garde and they concentrated on the process of abstract forms as a form and process of knowledge. Both of them fought against the authority of politics over the autonomy of art. So, it is interesting to compare how Perilli and Istler reacted to the different political situation after Second World War, one in Italy and other in Czechoslovakia. My goal is to define the various artistic and social backgrounds of two artists in order to better understand the value, spirituality and authenticity of their artworks within the European context.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Kolíbal's Book Illustrations - In Hands of Authority, Influenced by Tradition, Heading to Originality

11:30

University / Faculty / Institute:

12:00

Charles University / Faculty of Arts

Abstract of the contribution:

link

Stanislav Kolíbal is a man of many talents and original thoughts, his life has been full of inspiration but also limits to overcome. Authorities of different kinds have shaped his fate in both positive and negative directions. The art of Kolíbal stems from his intellectual potential as well as creative thinking and experiments and as such exploits the traditional sources of human knowledge. His oeuvre still develops and even in his 90ies Kolíbal is able to offer work with new challenges which enriches his original art.

My contribution will focus on the part of Kolíbal´s work which, if compared to his sculptures or drawings, is often forgotten and that is book illustration. I will consider his book illustration from the perspective given by the topic of the conference and briefly outlined in the abstract initial paragraph. Kolíbal had illustrated the books since his studies and the illustration culminated in the 60ies. The topics discussed in my contribution will cover the artistic and technical development of the illustration, the content of the literature being illustrated and its selection process, the influence of the repressive regime and also the art critics concentrated around a specialized magazine Zlatý máj, which was crutial for further work opportunities of the artists.

Book illustration of Stanislav Kolíbal will be also discussed in relation to book illustrations of his fellow artists in the artistic group UB 12, including some of his colleagues and friends - Václav Boštík, Václav Bartovský, Jiří John, Daisy Mrázková or Adriena Šimotová. Speaking about the illustrations I will ask the question whether it should be also considered as a sort of escape from communist regime through diving into a world of fantasy and originality or it might have been a way to find a new inspiration or it might have served mainly as the only way for the artists to earn their living.

Book illustration in the sixties has not yet been researched thouroughly and I hope my dissertation project will assist in developing deeper knowledge of the art in the Czechoslovakia in the 1960's.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The Surrealist Concept of Automatism – The Relation of Originality, Tradition and Authority in the work of Alena Nádvorníková

13:00

University / Faculty / Institute:

13:30

University Leipzig / Faculty of History, Arts and Oriental Studies / Institute of Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

link

‘A subtle author of drawings with her eyes shut’ is how the surrealist František Dryje describes the Czech artist Alena Nádvorníková (*1942). Nádvorníková is a painter, poet and theorist, as well as a member of the Surrealistická skupina v Československu, which significantly influences her artistic and theoretical work. Following the surrealist guideline – to find the truth in one's own unconscious – her works focus on questions of human perception of the world and modern artistic expression.

In the 1970s and 1980s Nádvorníková created drawings that dissolved the boundaries between figurative, abstract and non-figurative forms of image. Her creative projects are based on the individual self, the inner model. They reflect thoughts, emotions and ideas and tell an imaginative story. In the course of this, the works are not a conscious act of effort, but approach the process of psychic automatism – a technique that was already propagated by the French surrealist André Breton in the first Surrealist manifesto in 1924.

The contribution discusses Nádvorníková's automatic drawings as a creative concept between originality and tradition. On the basis of specific examples, the question of which creative, subversive positions are expressed in the works will be examined initially. Then, by positioning the results in the (cultural-political) context of their creation, it will be determined which surrealist strategies the artist uses to question classical patterns of perception and the 'authority of the real'.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The Totality in Art and the experience of World War II - Subjection to Authority or a Journey to Freedom?

13:30

University / Faculty / Institute:

14:00

Charles University / Faculty of Arts

Abstract of the contribution:

link

The concept of totality arouses primarily antipathy and fear of oppression after the experience of Wold War II. Hannah Arendt wondered why did so many intellectuals and avant-garde artists, with their pronounced individualism, give way to totalitarian ideologies. She pointed out that what may seem as an utmost opposite isn’t in fact incompatible, but on the contrary it turns out to be closely intertwined.

What I am interested in is however not the totality that we know today but it is this concept as it appeared before its realisation in the political practice. I would like to look at the idea of totality as a starting point from which we can examine the complicated relationship between modern art and totalitarian regimes. The topics that I would like to address are as follows: The idea of artwork as Gesamtkunstwerk, the complete or total creation combining visual art, music and theatre, secondly it is the abstraction of reality as a pathway to integrated and solid world and thirdly it is the desire to dominate the spectator and the idea of dissolution of art in life.

I will focus on the concept of “total” theatre performance, which was formulated in 1930s by Antonin Artaud and other attempts of “sealing” of the world. Paintings which lead to the zero point, performances which claim the mind and feelings of the audience and exhibition which becomes a ritual space for transformation of the visitors. All of these examples might be seen from the suggested point of view. All of them were motivated by the idea of complexity which is missing, totality that should be found. All of them presented art In its extreme form.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Originality, Technology and Contemporary Art

14:00

University / Faculty / Institute:

14:30

Hong Kong City University / School of Creative Media

Abstract of the contribution:

link

The development of art history as an academic discipline was strongly influenced by the idea of originality. As a concept about artistic creation, the artist as genius and his/her artistic intention, it was strongly influenced by European romanticism. During the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century, most art historians focused on artistic intention and an artist’s biography in their interpretation of artworks. However, many artists started to question this emphasis in their own works, especially in the 1960s and onwards. By focusing on the materiality and mediality of their art, using everyday objects and working collaboratively, they created new aesthetics, which questions or even negates an artistic authority.At the same time, (digital) technologies and new media were discovered as tools, subjects and media for art, e.g. in media art, digital art and sound art. This challenged the well-established idea of originality anew. Automatic and generated processes, collaborations with technicians and performers and hardware/software rathter than oil/canvas became central aspects in the creation of these artworks. By being modular, processual and ephemeral, these artworks not only discuss and challenge the idea of origin and originality, but have become contradictive to this concept. By looking at the collaborative artistic processes in early computer art (or, Algorhithmic art) that artists like Lillian F. Schwartz, Harold Cohen and Frieder Nake participated in, I want to analyse the meaning of originality in technological art and contrast it with other concepts like collectivity. While technicians became influential in the aesthetic appearance of artworks, machines and software have radically changed an artwork’s mediality. Finally, this will also shed a new light on our definition of originality in art history, in general.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Formation of canon : usage of statistical data and the history of exhibitions

14:30

University / Faculty / Institute:

15:00

Charles University / Catholic Theological Faculty

Abstract of the contribution:

link

The art historians are interested through the last decades in the history of art exhibitions and the questions related to the issues of formation of the canon. One of the basic theses of this approach is that the aesthetic value, either given by a traditional or original approach, is only part of the success. The motivations behind the display of particular image or at least of particular artist could be very different. Opinions on what affects the display vary widely and include a wide range of choices ranging from social and political pressures to the

artist's personality. At the same time, the question is how can the popularity of artists be measured and whether, apart from general awareness or professional beliefs, it is possible to find out which artists belong to the canon. Various databases of exhibitions that are being developed as research projects all over Europe are an interesting tool for this kind of research. Statistical data can be obtained from the them, that allows a new view of the development of art history. It can be very helpful with solving the issues about formating the

canon, showing the exact numbers of appearance of particular artists. The aim of this paper is to use this methods and to show an example from the Czech history of modern art. Due to the turbulent history of the 20th century in Czechoslovakia, the attention will be focused mainly on how the political and social transformation influenced the canon and also the issue of tradition and traditional approaches. It will also discuss the issue of an authority in this context and the issue of quantity vs. quality. It will also point out the disadvantages of this approach and why it is so important to always return to the roots of art history.

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The discipline of authorial presentation as an emergence of a genre

15:00

University / Faculty / Institute:

15:30

Academy of Performing Arts / Theatre Faculty (DAMU), Authorial Creativity

Abstract of the contribution:

link

The contribution focuses on a specific discipline of Authorial Presentation taught at the Department of Authorial Creativity at DAMU (KATaP). Being studied under specific and rather isolated conditions, the discipline could be perceived as a laboratory example of the clash of (oral) history, authority, study requirements and one’s originality and personal artistic preferences creating a specific genre at specific place at certain time under the supervision of a specific audience.

The lecturer’s interest concentrates on the dramatic art as the possibility of reflecting one’s lived experience. The raw material of his dissertation thesis consists partly of footage, recordings and psychology - based qualitative analysis of interviews regarding the Authorial presentation as an example of a way a person could reflect on their life experience in an artistic manner.

In general, each semester each student of KATaP is expected to create a short performance just with the use of mainly his or her body, movement, speech and voice. Other features, like props, are not recommended. While the students of KATaP usually are able to grasp the principles of the Authorial presentation, it is of certain interest that specific conditions or instructions are usually not provided by the department staff. Still, there is something that most of the performances share. The lecturer believes that influence of certain inner history and authority serves as a background from which a specific genre of Authorial performance emerges.