Exhibitions as Sites of Artistic Contact during the Cold War

This symposium explores the agency of art exhibitions during the Cold War (1958-1989) in establishing transnational collaborations across the Iron Curtain, revealing the complexity of interrelations between art, society, and politics. In this way, the conference not only challenges the standard ideological division between ‘East’ and ‘West’ but looks at visual micro- and macro-histories through the lens of internationalism. The conference applies a broad understanding of East, Central and Southeast European art with a simultaneous view of international politics, global art currents, and local institutional as well as non-institutional decisions about art making in the region.

The conference investigates the exhibition as a medium, as a space of cultural contact and cultural diplomacy, as a site of exchange of objects and thoughts, as a space of gathering together, and as a location of innovative curatorial formats and alternative art practices. The organizers and contributors aim to reveal significant moments of conflicting, strategic, or peaceful contact with state institutions and politics. Their purpose is to map out the ways in which formal and informal networks of artists, objects and institutions have contributed to the circulation, transfer, adaptation, and reception of ideas and artistic practices on both sides of the Iron Curtain through the exhibition as a reflexive art for(u)m.

Participants:
• David Crowley, National College of Art and Design, Dublin (keynote)
• Klara Kemp Welch, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (keynote)
• Sven Spieker, University of California at Santa Barbara (keynote)
• Zanna Gilbert, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (keynote)
• Zsuzsa László, Artpool Research Center, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
• Katalin Cseh-Varga, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
• Ieva Astahovska. Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga
• Daniel Grúň, Institute of Art History, Slovak Academy of Sciences and The Július Koller Society, Bratislava
• Caterina Preda, University of Bucharest
• Juliane Debeusscher, University of Barcelona/Université Grenoble Alpes
• Dietmar Unterkofler, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
• Kädi Talvoja, Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts
• Pavlina Morganova, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
• Claudia Friedrich, University of Cologne
• Veronika Rollová, Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, Prague
• Dániel Véri, Ferenczi Museum Center, Budapest
• Kirill Chunikhin, Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg
• Alessandra Franetovich, University of Florence
• Galina Dekova, National Academy of Arts, Sofia
• Anna Markowska, University of Wroclaw
• Andrea Bátorová, Comenius University, Bratislava
• Cristian Nae, “George Enescu” National University of Arts, Iasi
• Magda Radu, “George Enescu” National University of Arts, Iasi and Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest
• Zofia Reznik, University of Wroclaw

Conference language: English.
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The conference is organized as part of the research project Crossing the Borders: Transnational Collaborations and Institutional Critique in Exhibitions of Eastern European Art during Late Socialism (1964-1989), code PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-1369, financed by CNCS-UEFISCDI within PNCDI III.
For more information visit: www.arteiasi.ro/transcol/en/conference-2019