SocialEast
Forum on the Art and Visual Culture of Eastern Europe
SEMINAR SERIES - CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals for papers are invited from art historians, curators and artists that examine the art and visual culture of Eastern Europe during the socialist period. The SocialEast seminars are organised by MIRIAD Manchester Metropolitan University and will be held at various venues during 2006-7.
Papers should address one of the four thematic areas covered in the seminar series: Art and Ideology, Art and Documentary, Art and Revolution, or Art and Memory. Further details of the seminars are given below and on the SocialEast Forum website www.socialeast.org
Please send a 200 word proposal and biographical note to Dr. Reuben Fowkes [email protected] by Monday 31 July 2006.
SocialEast Seminar Series 2006-7
A series of international seminars will be held during 2006-7 to address issues of Art and Ideology, Art and Documentary, Art and Revolution, and Art and Memory in the context of East European art and visual culture. The seminars will be accompanied by contemporary art events, including exhibitions, artists' presentations and film screenings.
No.1 Art and Ideology
Manchester Metropolitan University, Friday 6 October 2006
The focus of the first seminar will be the relationship between art and ideology in the context of the recent history of East European art. Specific issues that will be addressed include: the writing and rewriting of East European art history; the role of exhibition strategy, museology and curating in the reconstruction and reappraisal of the history of art in East Central Europe; contemporary artists' projects dealing with the legacy of the art of the socialist period from conceptualism to socialist realism; and theorising the contradictions between national, regional and international accounts of East European art, both historical and contemporary.
No.2 Art and Documentary
Open Society Archives / Central European University Budapest, 10 November 2006
The second seminar will coincide with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest, and will include coverage of issues such as: the role of contemporary art in commemorating historical events from the socialist period, both revolutions and counter-revolutions; the history and treatment of public monuments in Eastern Europe; relics of socialism in contemporary visual culture, and the use of photographic and film archives of the socialism in visual research.
No.3 Art and Revolution
Venue and date to be confirmed
The third seminar takes as its primary focus the legacy of political, social and cultural revolutions for art and visual culture in Eastern Europe. This would include discussion of the role of the historical avant-garde, the specific trajectory of Conceptual Art in Central Europe, and the reevaluation of Socialist Realism as an art historical problem in the context of modernism, post-modernism and the polarised aesthetics of the Cold War.
No.4 Art and Memory
Venue and date to be confirmed
The fourth seminar focuses on the role of artists in excavating memories of the socialist period. It considers the role of artists, curators and researchers in analysing and processing public memories and consciousness, as well as the role of visual representations in our understanding and recoding of Eastern Europe's socialist past. The widespread concern with the endangered memories of socialism takes place against the backdrop of rapid social and cultural change on the path to trans-national integration, and the seminar will also deal with the search for alternative models in art and society.
SocialEast Forum (Call for Papers)
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Type: discussion
Comments
< Eastern Europe during the
socialist period. >
WHEN WAS THAT THEN?
-or was the 'work harder you dirty whore' regularly
directed pre 1980 to my aunt at her workplace merely a
form of friendly socialist encouragement?
-the two year jail term given to my cousin for trying
to cross the border after the Jaruzelski coup a
comradely tap on the knuckles..
-or the death from starvation or shooting of half my
father's companions in labour camp, or the death of my
grandfather from gangrene because the authorities
refused to replace his worn out shoes, just an
unfortunate glitch in the free Siberian/Kazakhstan
holiday experience provided by the "socialist"
neighbour in the East…
As an academic you should be *squirming with shame* to
use language so loosely, ignorantly & corruptly..even
inverted commas might have made a difference..
michael szpakowski
I'm not sure what you find so provocative about the notion of 'Eastern Europe during the socialist
period', can you suggest a more precise term? 'Eastern Europe' includes the idea of a political
construct (as opposed to Central Europe, which has other implications), and 'socialist' is preferred
over 'communist', as it is a more open and less judgemental term, as well as being the term of
self-reference of those countries in that period. I use these terms to refer to the subject of the
seminar series, rather than suggest any a priori value judgements, rather unlike the vitrolic tone
of your message.
Dr Reuben Fowkes
Research Fellow MIRIAD
(Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design),
"Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read the Manchester Metropolitan
University's email disclaimer available on its website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer"
>>> Michael Szpakowski <[email protected]> 02/07/2006 13:23 >>>
< Eastern Europe during the
socialist period. >
WHEN WAS THAT THEN?
-or was the 'work harder you dirty whore' regularly
directed pre 1980 to my aunt at her workplace merely a
form of friendly socialist encouragement?
-the two year jail term given to my cousin for trying
to cross the border after the Jaruzelski coup a
comradely tap on the knuckles..
-or the death from starvation or shooting of half my
father's companions in labour camp, or the death of my
grandfather from gangrene because the authorities
refused to replace his worn out shoes, just an
unfortunate glitch in the free Siberian/Kazakhstan
holiday experience provided by the "socialist"
neighbour in the East…
As an academic you should be *squirming with shame* to
use language so loosely, ignorantly & corruptly..even
inverted commas might have made a difference..
michael szpakowski
<can you suggest a more precise term?>
Yes - Stalinist states, centralised command economies,
Soviet bloc countries, Warsaw pact countries,
countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, State
Capitalist regimes, "socialist" countries, "communist"
countries…
<and 'socialist' is preferred
over 'communist', as it is a more open and less
judgemental term>
Who says? -they both have precise meanings:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm#s3
Do you think it would be less taxonomically sloppy to
call a carrot an apple or to call it a plum?
<as being the term of
self-reference of those countries in that period>
Sorry ,in my innocence I had assumed it was the duty
of academics to look beyond self labelling.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!
Michael Szpakowski,
Emperor of Japan
— Reuben Fowkes <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm not sure what you find so provocative about the
> notion of 'Eastern Europe during the socialist
> period', can you suggest a more precise term?
> 'Eastern Europe' includes the idea of a political
> construct (as opposed to Central Europe, which has
> other implications), and 'socialist' is preferred
> over 'communist', as it is a more open and less
> judgemental term, as well as being the term of
> self-reference of those countries in that period. I
> use these terms to refer to the subject of the
> seminar series, rather than suggest any a priori
> value judgements, rather unlike the vitrolic tone
> of your message.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr Reuben Fowkes
> Research Fellow MIRIAD
> (Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in
> Art and Design),
>
> "Before acting on this email or opening any
> attachments you should read the Manchester
> Metropolitan
> University's email disclaimer available on its
> website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer"
>
> >>> Michael Szpakowski <[email protected]> 02/07/2006
> 13:23 >>>
> < Eastern Europe during the
> socialist period. >
> WHEN WAS THAT THEN?
>
> -or was the 'work harder you dirty whore' regularly
> directed pre 1980 to my aunt at her workplace merely
> a
> form of friendly socialist encouragement?
> -the two year jail term given to my cousin for
> trying
> to cross the border after the Jaruzelski coup a
> comradely tap on the knuckles..
> -or the death from starvation or shooting of half my
> father's companions in labour camp, or the death of
> my
> grandfather from gangrene because the authorities
> refused to replace his worn out shoes, just an
> unfortunate glitch in the free Siberian/Kazakhstan
> holiday experience provided by the "socialist"
> neighbour in the East…
>
> As an academic you should be *squirming with shame*
> to
> use language so loosely, ignorantly &
> corruptly..even
> inverted commas might have made a difference..
>
> michael szpakowski
> +
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> +
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> out in the
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>
::Sorry ,in my innocence I had assumed it was the duty
::of academics to look beyond self labelling.
It is the job of academics to not only look beyond self-labeling, but also to
create labels so far removed from reality that they in no way imply a stance,
thus allowing the academic to either disavow anything they have said or claim
that the person reading the statement has not understood it. It is also the
academic's job to turn any question around on the questioner by saying
things like, "Well, my silly man, what would -you- have called it?", thus,
again, implying that the reader has not understood.
Really, if you want to argue against a system, the only way you are allowed to
do it is by playing the same game, even if your complaint is that it is the game
that is corrupt. Otherwise, you haven't understood it. Jesus, man, get it
together.
-Alexis
On 4 Jul 2006, at 19:54, Alexis Turner wrote:
> ::Sorry ,in my innocence I had assumed it was the duty
> ::of academics to look beyond self labelling.
>
> It is the job of academics to not only look beyond self-labeling,
> but also to
> create labels so far removed from reality that they in no way imply
> a stance,
> thus allowing the academic to either disavow anything they have
> said or claim
> that the person reading the statement has not understood it.
Ha ha. Yes, academics do bullshit sometimes. It's the job of us mere
mortals to point out when their amazingly fantastic new ideas smell
funny. Otherwise the stance you describe is that of a manipulative
and irresponsible adolescent, not an engaged academic.
> It is also the
> academic's job to turn any question around on the questioner by saying
> things like, "Well, my silly man, what would -you- have called
> it?", thus,
> again, implying that the reader has not understood.
Certainly. But academics must have no immunity from being shown their
own incomprehension, otherwise they become mere ideologues. Selective
pleading for suspension of value judgements is usefully questioned by
introduction of actual lived experience. We should thank Michael for
his contribution and at least suspend value judgements on it whilst
we explore it to see what useful possibilities it opens up, rather
than rejecting it in a sophistic closing of academic ranks.
> Really, if you want to argue against a system, the only way you are
> allowed to
> do it is by playing the same game, even if your complaint is that
> it is the game
> that is corrupt.
Or one could go meta to make a value judgement on the making of
substantive criticisms rather than answering those substantive
criticisms.
> Otherwise, you haven't understood it. Jesus, man, get it
> together.
I don't understand. This seems to be a value judgement and an attempt
to close off discussion.
- Rob.