Disintegrating Progress: Bolshevism, National Modernism, and the Emergence of Contemporary Art Practices in Armenia

ARTMargins ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vardan Azatyan

This article provides a genealogy of the emergence of contemporary art practices in Armenia, arguing that the very history of emersion of these practices can be seen as a complex process of disintegration of the Bolshevik political project, particularly its agenda to base art on a subtle dialectical reconciliation between the nation and the class. After this dialectic was brutally instrumentalized by Stalinist Socialist Realism, it was attacked by the National Modernists during Khrushchev's Thaw. Later, in 1970s, from within the National Modernism itself, the first tendencies of contemporary art practices emerged. They began to challenge the conventional notions of artistic practice along the lines of a conception of art as a performative practice of liberatory subjectivization. This marked the point of the ultimate disintegration of both triumphant and tragic Bolshevik project that became a haunting specter of post-Soviet contexts.

Author(s):  
Steven Jacobs ◽  
Susan Felleman ◽  
Vito Adriaensens ◽  
Lisa Colpaert

Sculpture is an artistic practice that involves material, three-dimensional, and generally static objects, whereas cinema produces immaterial, two-dimensional, kinetic images. These differences are the basis for a range of magical, mystical and phenomenological interactions between the two media. Sculptures are literally brought to life on the silver screen, while living people are turned into, or trapped inside, statuary. Sculpture motivates cinematic movement and film makes manifest the durational properties of sculptural space. This book will examine key sculptural motifs and cinematic sculpture in film history through seven chapters and an extensive reference gallery, dealing with the transformation skills of "cinemagician" Georges Méliès, the experimental art documentaries of Carl Theodor Dreyer and Henri Alekan, the statuary metaphors of modernist cinema, the mythological living statues of the peplum genre, and contemporary art practices in which film—as material and apparatus—is used as sculptural medium. The book’s broad scope and interdisciplinary approach is sure to interest scholars, amateurs and students alike.


Leonardo ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Fernández

Despite his influence in art, architecture and theater, British cybernetician Gordon Pask is rarely acknowledged in histories of digital culture and virtually unknown in the history of art. Pask is better known as a theoretician than as an artist or designer, although his machines, artwork and theories were closely related. This article investigates the relevance of specific aspects of Pask's theories to his best-known artwork, The Colloquy of Mobiles, to illustrate his characteristic unification of science and art, and theory and material experimentation. Select works of contemporary art are discussed to indicate Pask's significance to contemporary art practices.


Author(s):  
Lucía Stubrin

ResumenEn este artículo se buscan desplegar los replanteos epistemológicos dentro de la historia de las ciencias biológicas que prepararon el  terreno para la apertura mental de los científicos y la apertura física de los laboratorios, dando lugar a la consolidación del bioarte. De esta manera, intentamos analizar el surgimiento de la biotecnología dentro de un entramado político, económico y social complejo donde los conocimientos se complementan dentro del ámbito científico, generando asimismo un  margen de conciencia sobre la falibilidad del método y la ciega especialización. El reconocimiento de las debilidades sirve como condición de posibilidad para la incorporación de actores artísticos que trabajan con los mismos materiales, desafiando las lógicas, preguntas y objetivos tradicionales de la tarea científica. El artículo, asimismo, se inscribe dentro de la investigación interdisciplinaria realizada en el marco de la tesis doctoral de quien escribe, titulada “Arte y ciencia: la práctica bioartística argentina en su relación con la escena internacional”.  Palabras clave: Biotecnología, bioarte, ciencia, epistemología, arte contemporáneo, técnica, Argentina.***************************************************Re-unifying power of technology. Reflections about the creation of a collaborative space between science and artAbstractThis article aims at displaying the epistemological statements within the history of biological sciences which prepared the terrain for the mind opening of the scientists and physical opening of laboratories,giving place to the consolidation of bio-art. In this manner, we intend to analyze the surge of biotechnology inside a complex interwoven political, economic and social context, where knowledge is complemented in the scientific field, generating a light of consciousness about the method fertility and blind specialization. Acknowledging weaknesses serves as a feasibility condition for the involvement of artistic actors who work with the same materials, challenging the traditional logics, questions and goals of the scientific task. The article in itself belongs to the inter-disciplinary research carried out within the framework of the doctoral thesis of the undersigning, entitled “Art and Science: the Argentinean bio-artistic practice in its relation with the international scene”. Key words: bio-technology, bio-art, science, epistemology, contemporary art, technique, Argentina.***************************************************O poder reunificador da biotecnologia. Reflexões em torno à confirmação de um espaço colaborativo entre arte e ciênciaResumoNeste artigo se buscam expandir os delineamentos epistemológicos dentro da história das ciências biológicas que prepararam o terreno para a abertura mental dos cientistas e à abertura física dos laboratórios, dando lugar à consolidação da bioarte. Desta maneira, tentamos analisar o surgimento da biotecnologia dentro de um entrançado político, econômico e social complexo no qual  os conhecimentos se complementam dentro do âmbito cientifico, gerando assim mesmo uma margem de consciência sobre a fiabilidade do método e a cega especialização. O reconhecimento das fraquezas  serve como condição de possibilidade para a incorporação de atores artísticos que trabalhem com os mesmos materiais, desafiando as lógicas perguntas e objetivos tradicionais da tarefa científica. O artigo também se inscreve dentro da investigação interdisciplinar realizada no marco da tese doutoral de quem escreve, titulada “Arte e ciência: a prática bioartística argentina na sua relação com a cena internacional”.Palavras chave: biotecnologia, bioarte, ciência, epistemologia, arte contemporânea, técnica, Argentina.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-119
Author(s):  
Olga Nefedova

The first Iraqi undergraduate and postgraduate students to study monumental art came to Moscow in the early 1960s. Mahmoud Sabri (1927–2012) joined the Vasily Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute in 1960, Shams al-Din Faris (1937–83) and Ahmed al Numan (1939–2013) joined the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts in 1961. In this article, I will address the subject of the graduation mural projects created by these three Iraqi artists within the ideological framework of socialist realism in art and art education in the USSR, and influenced also by their own historical and political environments. My aim is to answer various questions surrounding the historical framework of the murals, such as by whom, when, where and how they were created, why they became a manifestation of the students’ political and social experiences and hopes and why these grand projects were, unfortunately, never realized. Explaining the history of the artworks and artistic practice, I will argue that, as products of the final outcome of knowledge transfer at that time, these artworks are effectively documents of their era, responding to and reflecting their socio-historical contexts both in Iraq and in the USSR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-648
Author(s):  
Svetlana M. Gracheva ◽  

In Russian fine art, portrait painting has been traditionally distinguished by extraordinary variety and depth, reflecting the figurative and stylistic searches of artists of different periods. Russian art historians have comprehensively studied the portrait genre in the history of art. At the same time, the well-established classification of genres does not allow to take into account completely the variety of trends and approaches to the depiction of a person in contemporary art. The understanding of the portrait genre’s boundaries in contemporary art is extremely blurred. Sometimes it means either any image of a person, or even the absence of one at all. It appears essential and important to consider the work of Russian artists in the context of international visual art practices to compose a more holistic picture connected with general cultural development. The article proposes to expand the established typology of the portrait genre adopted in Russian art. The already well-known typology of portrait painting can be updated with other types of portrait based on the semantic and semiotic analysis of artistic works of the late 20th — 21st century. It is important to study contemporary Russian portrait painting from the perspective of a variety of typological models, and to use the new language of contemporary art history to understand the processes taking place in Russian painting of the late 20th — 21st century, in order to facilitate the entry of Russian art into the international cultural context. An idea has been matured to create a National Portrait Gallery in Russia which would collect portraits and self-portraits of the greatest personalities of our era in a real and virtual space.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galina Yankovskaya

The article examines typical features of images and themes of the past as they appear in contemporary Russian art, within the context of the presentist regime of historicism and as a part of public history. This research focuses on the works by Mikhail Pavlyukevich and Olga Subbotina, as well as Chaim Sokol, all of them the artists for whom image of the present is determined by the experience of the past as an incomplete process. The analysis focuses on the factors that ground this important place that the past occupies within the space of contemporary art practices. The article explores intersections between history in public space and contemporary art. The author argues that the development of public history rooted in participatory culture, as well as de-monopolisation of expert knowledge and non-academic languages constituting the discourse on the past, shares similarities with many characteristics of contemporary art practices. In these practices the public actively participates in the artistic processes, an artist loses their status as a demiurge, while site-specific character of artistic projects necessarily rests upon the exlporation of the history of place and the immersion in memory. A palimpsest, in which inseparable interpenetrating layers of the past appear through one another, becomes a metaphor both of public history and of one of the trends in contemporary art. Keywords: presentism, public history, contemporary art, Mikhail Pavlyukevich, Olga Subbotina, Chaim Sokol


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Wandah Wibawanto ◽  
Triyanto Triyanto ◽  
Agus Cahyono ◽  
Tjetjep R. Rohendi

Implementing short courses on the complex process of batik creation for foreign students, which have to be conducted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presents a challenge. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implementation of batik art practices that involve online learning and digital technology. This study entails an online course involving twenty-six (26) foreign students to provide empirical evidence about the practical procedure for making batik motifs with digital applications. Consequently, it confirmed that the artistic practice of making batik motifs can be tought online, and participants can effectively make these designs by employing the Dbatik application.


Author(s):  
Matilde Nardelli

Through a focus on Runa Islam’s installation Cabinet of Prototypes (2009–2010), but drawing on the work of Tobias Putrih, Janet Cardiff, and George Bures Miller among others, this essay explores the commitment to displaying the objectness of historical cinema and its filmic apparatus in contemporary art. It argues that in setting up tangible, specific ways to look at the medium of cinema, the artistic practice of artists such as Islam effectively offers a theorization of cinema itself for the age of its obsolescence. Art practices, such as Islam’s, that are simultaneously a kind of curation of cinema constitute not only a way of reflecting on the medium’s historicity, but also of experimenting with its possible reemergence as something other than its historical self.


Author(s):  
José Luis Panea

El reposo al que la enfermedad conduce para mitigar el dolor encuentra –cultural e históricamente– como escenario paradigmático el lecho, la cama. Este mueble, en tanto metáfora corporal, suele ser testigo de acontecimientos como el nacimiento, la enfermedad, la sexualidad y el erotismo o la muerte. En el arte, ha devenido tropo frecuente al exponer dichas cuestiones, conduciendo a una re-experimentación creativa del espacio doméstico. Analizaremos una genealogía de artistas que aportan otra mirada a este enser por el que el cuerpo pasa, y que, debido a la experiencia de la enfermedad y el trauma, se resignifica, llevando al autor a replantar su propio habitar e incluso su práctica artística. Partiremos de la Estética y la Historia del Arte para localizar las principales exposiciones sobre el tema y pondremos en relación a los artistas que han tratado la cama como repositorio de dicho padecer.AbstractThe repose to which the disease leads to mitigate the pain, finds –culturally and historically– as a paradigmatic scenario the bed. This piece of furniture, as a body metaphor, is usually witness of events such as birth, disease, sexuality and eroticism or death. In art, the bed has become a frequent trope especially to expose the illness as a moment of forced rest in which it is possible to creatively re-experience the domestic. We propose a genealogy of artists who bring another look to this belonging that, due to the experience of pain, trauma or disease, is re-signified, leading the author to reconsider his own habitat. We will start from Aesthetics and History of Art to analyse the main exhibitions on the subject and we will put in relation the artists who have treated the bed as a repository of said suffering.


Author(s):  
Stephen Monteiro

Cinema plays a major role in contemporary art, yet the deeper influence of its diverse historical forms on artistic practice has received little attention. Working from a media and cultural studies perspective, Screen Presence explores the intersections of film, popular media, and art since the 1950s through the examples of four pivotal figures – Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Mona Hatoum and Douglas Gordon. While their film-related works may appear primarily as challenges to conventional cinema, these artists draw on overlooked forms of popular film culture that have been commonplace, and even dominant, in specific social contexts. Through analysis of a range of examples and source materials, Stephen Monteiro demonstrates the dependence of contemporary artists on cinema’s shifting applications and interpretations, offering a fresh understanding of the enduring impact of everyday media on how we make and view art.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document