CFP SRS 2018 Politically charged artistic representations of the past in the Romanian public space (deadline extended)

Call for papers for a panel at the Conference of the Society for Romanian Studies (SRS) (Bucharest, 26-30 June 2018)

Politically charged artistic representations of the past in the Romanian public space

This panel seeks to bring together researchers dealing with artistic representations of the past in Romania. The presentations can deal with the public, or state sponsored official memory as it is displayed in the public space in the form of monuments or statues. The missing memory, or the erasure of the Socialist Realist representations from the public space is one of the topics that could be tackled. The different memory conflicts of the historical traumatic experiences and their artistic forms could represent a secondary theme. The alternative representations of the past, whether in the form of performative practices, or urban/street art forms, are also taken into account. How and what do the public squares, public buildings, and the cultural and educational spaces tell of the national past? How do nationalist and other ideologically centered representations of the past co-exist in contemporary (re)configurations? What roles play artistic representations in questioning the status-quo and/or the officialized memories of the past?

Those interested should send a short abstract of 250 words until October 10 to Caterina Preda, Phd, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest, caterinapreda@gmail.com

         

Alexandra Pirici, If You Don’t Want Us, We Want You, 2011. 

Bust of Ion Antonescu in Bucharest   

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CFP for LASA 2018 (Barcelona): Panel on Art and the transnational memory of the dictatorships in South America

Artistic remembrance is an important part of the memorialization of the dictatorial past. This panel seeks to bring together scholars working on different types of artistic renderings of the past in South America in the aftermath of dictatorships. When dictatorships end, artists continue to discuss the past and question issues that are interesting for the organization of the memory of suffering. We invite proposals that analyze specific cases of artists, different types of political art, with a focus on visual arts. We want to investigate the diversity of approaches of artistic remembrance, from the documentation of the past beyond the official gaze, to the challenging of the continuity in the public life of the perpetrators.

Please send 250 words abstracts by September the 3^rd in English or Spanish to Caterina Preda at caterina.preda@fspub.unibuc.ro. Caterina Preda holds a PhD in Political Science and is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science University of Bucharest.

Arte y la memoria transnacional de las dictaduras en América del sur

La memoria artística es una parte importante del proceso de memorialización del pasado dictatorial. Este panel quiere reunir investigadores que trabajan con diferentes tipos de representaciones del pasado en América del sur después de la dictaduras. Cuando las dictaduras terminan, los artistas continúan de hablar sobre el pasado y de cuestionar temas que son interesantes para la gestión de la memoria del sufrimiento. Invitamos ponencias que analizan casos específicos de artistas, diferentes tipos de arte político con un enfoque en los artes visuales. Queremos investigar la diversidad de enfoques de la memoria artística, de la documentación del pasado más allá de la mirada oficial, a la confrontación de la continuidad en la vida publica de los torturadores.

João Pina, Condor

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The state artist in Romania and Eastern Europe

Call for Papers for the international conference: The ”state artist” in Romania and Eastern Europe

Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, 5 November 2016

The establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe brought for the visual arts, the establishment of the “state artist” (Haraszti). Artworks were commissioned by the state, which offered extensive rewards for the artists, obliged to comply with the political and ideological rigors of the regime. As part of the research project “From the “state artist” to the artist dependent on the state: the case of the Union of Visual Artists (1950-2010) – the Bucharest branch”, this conference seeks to explore the different transformations that the artists underwent in order to comply with the extensive role assumed by the totalitarian state in the arts. We invite contributions on the broad topic announced, that of the state artist in Romania and Eastern Europe with a specific focus on visual arts, but we are also interested to discuss other instances of collaboration with the regimes in place (1950s-1990). The conference aims to discuss the state artist in the context of communist regimes from multiple points of views. The topics discussed could be, but are not limited to:

-      How was the new artist shaped by the communist regimes?

-      Were artists able to integrate Socialist Realism as a mandatory style? If not, which were the limits of this mandatory style or the national specificities?

-      Which were the types of resistance to the model of the state artist?

-      How did Socialist Realism translate in different visual practices?

-      What role did the Union of Visual Artists of Romania play? How does it compare to other unions in the East?

-      What are the transformations of the unions of artists after 1990?

Those interested in presenting a paper should send an abstract of 500 words as well as a short CV (including a short list of publications) to caterinapreda@gmail.com until the 15^th of May 2016. A selection of conference presentations will be published in a volume, thus the accepted participants must send their contributions 1 month in advance (1^st of October 2016). The contributions must address the topic of the state artist, and must have 8.000 words including footnotes with a separate list of references. Organizing committee: Caterina Preda, Alina Popescu, Dan Drăghia. Place: The Institute for Political Research, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. The languages of the conferences are Romanian, English, and French.

De la artistul de stat la artistul dependent de stat Uniunea Artistilor Plastici din Romania (1950-2010) Filiala Bucuresti//From the “state artist” to the artist dependent on the state: the Union of Visual Artists (of Romania) (1950-2010) – the Bucharest branch

The project proposes to write a monographic study of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania (UAP) in the period 1950-2010 in the absence of a landmark study of one of the most important communist and postcommunist organizations that administers, controls and represents visual artists. The period of analysis includes both the communist regime, as well as the first 20 years of the democratic regime (1950-2010) so as to be able to capture in detail the transformation it suffered as a consequence. The project advances an analysis at several levels of this organization: an institutional sociologic approach, an analysis in terms of members and leading teams (elites), a research of the legal statutes that UAP went through and the definition of the artist, the relation with the communist and democratic state through a case study – that of producer of public monuments in Bucharest. The analysis of the relation with the Romanian state will include several types of interactions between the state and the artists through the investigation of archive documents unexploited until now (UAP, CNSAS, ANR, etc.), of interviews with those that governed the UAP and through the use of the methods specific to the analysis of the interdisciplinary field of art and politics. The project will disseminate its results through an international conference, a database with the UAP members, an index of the monuments realized by the UAP in Bucharest, as well as the publication of a monograph of UAP, of a volume including the presentations at the international conference, and a volume with archive unpublished documents.

Proiectul propune crearea unei monografii a Uniunii Artiștilor Plastici din România  (în perioada 1950-2010) în absența unui studiu de referință al uneia dintre cele mai importante instituții comuniste și postcomuniste care administrează, controlează, și reprezintă artiștii plastici. Perioada aleasă pentru studiu cuprinde atât regimul comunist, cât și primii 20 de ani ai regimului democratic (1950-2010) pentru a putea surpinde în detaliu transformările suferite de aceasta. Proiectul propune o analiză la mai multe niveluri a acestei organizații: o sociologie instituțională, o analiză în termeni de membri și echipe de conducere, o cercetare a statutelor legale pe care le experimentează UAP și a definiției artistului, a relației cu statul comunist și democratic și prin intermediul unui studiu de caz – cel al executării de monumente de for public în București. Analiza relației cu statul român va include diferitele tipuri de interacțiuni dintre stat și artiști prin intermediul cercetării documentelor de arhive neexploatate până acum (UAP, CNSAS, ANR, etc.), a unor interviuri cu responsabili UAP și prin utilizrea metodelor de analiză specifice câmpului interdisciplinar de artă și politică. Proiectul va disemina rezultatele printr-o conferință internațională, o bază de date cu membrii UAP, un index al monumentelor realizate de UAP București, precum și prin publicarea unei monografii a UAP, a unui volum cu prezentările din cadrul conferinței și a unui volum cu documente inedite de arhivă.

CFP: Arts during communism

Call For Papers: Arts during communism

This panel wants to discuss different examples of how art was regarded by different communist regimes in communist countries. What kind of art do communist regimes promote? Are there any important differences between Yugoslavia and Poland for example? Do political science typologies serve to understand the types of art created or do other typologies appear? The panel welcomes proposals from all artistic endeavors: visual arts, literature, theater, music, cinema and dance. Papers can deal with a national case as well as advance comparative overviews of the topic.

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short bio/CV highlighting your most important publications and/or conference presentations to: caterinapreda@ gmail.com

Deadline: 10 February 2014.

The website of the conference: http://www.scienceofpolitics.eu/scope-2014

SCOPE International conference of Political Research, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest, 27-29 June 2014 (www.scienceofpolitics.eu)

Caterina PREDA, Senior University Lecturer, PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest (http://artspolitics.blogspot.ro/)