CFP: Panels at 4th Euroacademia International Conference (Venedig, 4 – 5 Mar 2016)

Cultural Centre – Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, Italy, March 4 – 05,
2016
Deadline: Jan 15, 2016
[1] Identities and the Cities: Urban Transformations, Transition and
Change in
Urban Image Construction
[2] Art, History and Identity Making
Cultural Centre – Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, Italy, March 4 – 05,
2016
Call for Papers for the Panel:
Identities and the Cities: Urban Transformations, Transition and Change
in
Urban Image Construction
As part of the Fourth Euroacademia International Conference
‘Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective
Identities’, Venice, Italy, 4 – 5 March 2016
Deadline: 15 January 2015
Panel Description:
Elasticity of the label identity accommodates everything that does and
does
not surround us, thus finding its place in every discourse on making and
re-making, invention and re-invention, destruction and construction.
Every
transition is synonymous with said processes, be it a tectonic change
or a
peaceful shift. As political systems and countries disintegrate and new
ones rise, as they become more entangled in the global hyperspace, their
skin changes in a manner of theatrical scenery change after each act,
sometimes with discrete adaptation, sometimes with radical
interventions.
If the scenery is composed of streets, parks, roads, museums, monuments,
shopping malls and buildings connected through the intricate network of
the
perpetual and cumulative actions of its inhabitants and the burden of
their
existence, if this setting is a city, every adaptation and intervention
affects its multi-dimensional identities. However, can one speak of an
identity of the urban space in the singular form?
As the chaotic canvases of cities are being stretched over a framework
of
identity, its further exploration seems more than appropriate. Amidst
the
incredibly rapid urban growth crowding more than half of the world
population in towns and cities, the questions are only going to keep
multiplying. How are city identities made and re-made, used and abused,
imagined and narrated, politicized and communicated, expressed and
projected, imposed and marketed? And above all, how do they thrive
within
the dynamic interpolation of the nexus of East-West, Europe-Balkans,
center-periphery, urban – suburban, old and new. As outdated as these
dichotomies sound, in many places their daily life is far from over. As
old
cities became new capitals and new capitals struggle for more capital,
the
challenges of maintaining state-driven collective identities in the
face of
cultural fragmentation and diversification, coupled with
consumer-attractiveness is turning them into urban palimpsest. This
transformation is ever more complex in the cities of Central, Eastern
and
South-eastern Europe. In these last decades, during the period of
socio-political and cultural deconstruction, the redefinitions of their
urban space reflect the need to refashion, consolidate or even establish
their new/old identities. Flooded with imported ‘non-places’, (not)
dealing with the material legacy of memories of the recent past that
seem
unable to resolve, trying to accept or reject the rest of Europe in the
race towards ‘Europeanization’, these cities adopt different approaches
in their aim to resemble and at the same time, differ. Zagreb generously
welcomed its marketing nickname “pocket size Vienna”, while
regenerating itself with the mega Museum of Contemporary Art tailored
up to
an imagined ‘Western European’ standard. Skopje’s attention seeking
project transformed the ‘open city of solidarity’ into a literal
national identity construction site. The list goes on. Queuing to win
the
old continent’s capital of culture contest and eager to squeeze into the
ever-enlarging itinerary of the consumerist Grand Tour, the only thing
cities are not allowed to be, is invisible.
As the research on cultural identities of the city is becoming more
abundant, this panel aims at adopting a wide-lens inter-disciplinary
approach, while focusing on various transitional processes affecting
identities in the urban context in its global-regional-national-local
interplay.
Some example of topics may include (but are not limited to):
• Collective memory, identity and urban image construction
• Appropriation, instrumentalisation and functualisation of public
space
• Contemporary nomadism and the city as a common denominator for
collective identities
• Architecture as ‘politics with bricks and mortar’
• Is there a new rise of the city-state?
• Urban regeneration projects, landmark buildings and
‘starchitects’
• Non-places and (non)identity
• Immigrants and the cultural identity of cities
• City marketing and city branding in transition
• European capitals of culture and European identity
• Identity creation and the cultural offer of the city
• Urban cultural heritage as identity-anchor
• Creative Changes of the cities
• Art and industry in urban development
• Urban aesthetics
• Ugliness, kitsch and value in shaping contemporary urban spaces
• Post-communism and the shape of urban change
• East-West nexuses in urban development
If interested in participating, please read the complete details on the
conference website and apply on-line or send a maximum 300 words
abstract
together with the details of your affiliation until 15th of January
2016 at
application@euroacademia.eu
For full details of the conference and on-line application please see:
http://euroacademia.eu/conference/identities-and-identifications-fourth-edition/
[2]
From: Euroacademia <office@euroacademia.eu>
Date: Dec 9, 2015
Subject: Art, History and Identity Making
Call for Papers for the Panel
Art, History and Identity Making
As part of the Fourth Euroacademia International Conference ‘Identities
and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities’ to be
held in Venice, Italy, 4 – 5 March 2016
Deadline: 15 January 2016
Panel Description:
Identities are socially attributed imaginary significations. They are
part
of the dynamic projects of individual and social autonomy (C.
Castoriadis).
Nothing shapes, represents or reflects better the imaginary
constructions
of particular societies than arts. The artistic perception and practice
are
often identity making processes while the object of art can be a direct
or
indirect embodiment of experienced identities. At the outcome line of
the
process of artistic creation, the perception of the objects of art as
oeuvre is an identification with cultural claims for specific aesthetic
standards.
Art has a tremendous impact in indicating or shaping various dimensions
of
multilayered identities. Trough time art represented or influenced human
visions of life and death, natural or supra-natural, meanings of life
and
daily practices, beliefs and their expression, history and change,
places
and differences. Art is simultaneously a process of building contextual
cultural identifications and an instrument for cross-cultural dialogue.
Arts supported the symbolic legitimating of various political orders and
had an essential role in the creation of national identities. Arts
shaped
cultural aspirations and credos as an effective element of cultural
innovation, change and openness to new. Through imaginary
representations,
art inserted divisions and differences among cultures and
self-perceptions
of people yet also opened the path of curiosity for the other and the
emergence of trans-cultural dialogue. As artistic visions touched upon
the
most intimate identitarian representations of individuals and societies,
they exercise a fundamental role in the developments and dynamics of
identity making processes. Arts deeply touched on social and
self-representation through sculpture and portraiture, on civic
identities
through defining social spaces in architecture or quotidian perceptions
through design, on social or political allegiances through symbols,
iconic
objects and cultural diplomacy, on acting identities through theater,
literature or performance arts, on the formation of transnational and
global symbols. They exercised an essential impact on the formation of
social memories or in addressing inclusion and exclusion nexuses for the
marginalized or oppressed. Art is as well one of the important modes for
asserting identities.
This panel addresses explicitly and invites the theoretical or applied
studies that relate artistic manifestations with identity making
processes.
As the universe of reflection and research on the topics involved are
virtually unlimited and impossible to anticipate in full diversity, we
welcome contributions that add value or challenges to the discussion of
the
topic.
Some suggested topics for the panel are:
~ Art and identity: a bidirectional influence
~ Arts and the formation of social imaginary
~ Art as search for self-expression and identity
~ History, memory, art and identity: from literature to visual and
performing arts
~ Renaissance and humanism influence on modern identity
~ Art and the creation of national identities
~ Modern art and novelty as a value
~ Portraiture and identity: from painting to sculpture and photography
~ Performing identities: identity and performance in literature, theatre
and the performing arts
~ The body in art
~ Photography and identity making: from single images to serial
portraits
~ Identity and migration or displacement in art
~ Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brancusi: the human and the absolute
~ Picasso and Modigliani: images of a deeper self
~ Cindy Sherman: the nature of representation and construction of
identity
~ Architecture and urban vision: from civic identities to globalization
~ Contemporary design and the visions of life and the self
~ Displaying allegiance: from ideological art to political symbols
~ Fashion and social staging of personal identity
~ Cinematography and identitarian representations
~ Art and cross-cultural dialogue
~ Art and post-colonialism
~ Art and search for recognition: expressing cultural heritage
~ Art, infinite reproduction and the global village
~ Museums, galleries and exhibitions: displaying identities
If interested in participating, please read the complete details on the
conference website and apply on-line or send a maximum 300 words
abstract
together with the details of your affiliation until 15th of January
2016 at
application@euroacademia.eu
For full details of the conference and on-line application please see:
http://euroacademia.eu/conference/identities-and-identifications-fourth-edition/