Cosa significa deterritorializzare il linguaggio?

In this paper theoretical concepts and paradigms through which and within which the challenges, ambiguities, contradictions of the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary participative and collaborative artistic practices, are recognized and explained, will be analyzed on the example of the artist Tanja Ostojić's project named Leksikon Tânja Ostojić, started in 2011. Participatory or collaborative artworks are almost always realized through various nonartistic practices, likely on the boundary of political or social engagement, and often in the absence of standard artistic practices, media, materials, expressions, even without any visual character. These artworks are being generated and constructed by different situations in response to specific contexts. Their already conventional structure, beside artists, implies the involvement of the public sphere and its subjects, the establishment of a close relationship with the existing or newly established social group in a certain period. The method on which these modern participatory art practices rely on is certainly cooperation. The third key element of participative and collaborative practices is a social problem that becomes 'material' for work. Therefore, in this paper functions and meanings of artists and the community in colabrative and participative artistic practices will be considered, on the basis of an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary art history, as well as on the basis of current debates within contemporary art studies.

As social, locative, and mobile media render the intimate public and the public intimate, this volume interrogates how this phenomenon impacts art practice and politics. Contributors bring together the worlds of art and media culture to rethink their intersections in light of participatory social media. By focusing upon the Asia-Pacific region, they seek to examine how regionalism and locality affect global circuits of culture. The book also offers a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological paradigms for thinking about contemporary art practice more generally.

As a species of hunter and gatherer, we as humans are driven to collect things that we can use to sustain our lives, but once the intrinsic need of this process is met, animals of all sorts will collect objects for other purposes. To the contemporary artist, this innate sense of object envy or the desire to collect has become a driving force behind much contemporary art practice and is firmly posited in art theory. Patterns are emerging within collecting processes that have become templates for unique styles of representation, be they conceptual or practical. This research probes beneath the surface of artistic practice in relation to collected object inclusive artistic practice in the search for a model to explain the phenomena which has become more prevalent over the past century. The historical discourse of object collecting, classification and display from the Medieval Reliquary, cabinets of curiosities, early museums and the modern and contemporary museological frameworks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries forms the basis of this research. It is hypothesized that this historic continuum of collection processes has generated culturally and socially influenced object interaction behaviours that underpin the manner in which humans collect, classify and display objects. These historically informed behaviours have, over the span of history, resulted in a set of codified practices of collecting, classification and display. These practices, which have been repeated over the course of object collecting history, appear to have been adapted and incorporated into contemporary visual arts practice in those instances where artists engage with collected objects. To investigate the resonances of characteristic practices of historic collection processes that can be observed in contemporary collected object inclusive artistic practice, a series of researcher generated theoretic paradigms titled the Butterfly Pin Constructs, has been developed. The Butterfly Pin Constructs consist of five individual constructs that represent key elements of collecting, classification and display which have persisted and evolved since the Medieval period. These theoretic representations provide a platform upon which to discuss collected object inclusive artistic practice and the impact of the legacy of collection processes upon this contemporary phenomenon. This research utilises interview data from four Australian sample artists and the visual analysis of a number of their works of art to interrogate the framework of the Butterfly Pin Constructs and the role they may fulfil within the creative process. The Butterfly Pin Constructs, as embodiments of key characteristics of historic collection processes, are the central framework upon which an understanding of the phenomena of collected object inclusive practice can be positioned. As such, the interview responses and works of art of the late Tom Risley, Donna Marcus, Patrick Hall and Glen Skien, each of whom engage in collected object inclusive artistic practice, offer a sample set of this artistic phenomenon upon which to assess the validity of this theoretic model as offering an alternate paradigm to examine collected object inclusive artistic practice.

The importance of questioning the mediatory role of art criticism was established by theory in the 1960s, when it began to erode the boundary between works of art and objects which are not art but which have been institutionalized as legitimate artworks by theoreticians, critics, museums, art galleries and a narrow but well-versed public audience. The postmodern period has further exacerbated this crisis by annulling the meaning and significance of all dominant theoretical tendencies. Such circumstances have shown that art criticism, by losing a firm theoretical and axiological stronghold, has neglected its fundamental function of initiating and articulating, theoretically interpreting and mediating current artistic practices and the contemporary life of the art world. Curatorial practices in these new circumstances have imposed thematic and evaluative orientation points on art criticism while institutional art theories have conversely encouraged the paradigm shift which has caused art criticism to lose its original purpose. Operating mostly in the sphere of the mass media, and in harmony with its function, art criticism has focused on documenting and bringing into the public arena those works which have already been evaluated in advance by conceptual curatorial practice. Given that such projects addressed mostly narrow professional circles and the activities of the relevant institutions, the wider cultural context of following and evaluating current artistic production was lost. Art criticism found itself in an unfavourable position, squeezed between the demands of its mother discipline (history of art) for a normative and established scholarly apparatus, and the counter-demands of the media within which it operates. Therefore, its mediatory role was neutralized.Recent professional activities across the world, including two large international conferences - What is Critique? held in New York in 2010, and the Art and Reality organized at Saint Petersburg in 2011 and focusing on aspects and trends in twentieth-century art criticism point to a re-awakening of interest in the revitalization of the purpose and meaning of art criticism.Our contribution to this subject orientates itself methodologically according to the postulates of the relativistic and moderately-analytical Anglo-Saxon aesthetics of Nelson Goodman, which argue for the influence of culture on reception. By adjusting to the (culturally conditioned) shift away from investigating the purpose, value and significance of a work of art towards the purpose, significance and value of the representation itself, the mediatory function of art criticism includes the reception of the cultural paradigm a work of art is presenting. The demand for a mediatory function for art criticism is also based on the consequences of the turbulent events of nineteenth-century art, when provocation against good taste as such caused a sudden expansion of mutually exclusive theoretical paradigms. In this sense, mediation also implies that art criticism is rooted in the history of the discipline. One of the pre-requisites for the understanding of such a suggestion is found in works such as Lionello Venturi’s History of Art Criticism and Oskar Bätschmann’s Einführung in die kunstgeschichtliche Hermeneutik: Die Auslegung von Bildern (Introduction to Art Historical Hermeneutics). In the case of Venturi we highlight in particular the tendency to link the art historical discipline and art criticism in such a way as to return art criticism to historical problems (understanding of the origin of a work of art), and history of art to forming judgements (the critical evaluation of a work of art). In the case of Bätschmann, we underline his analysis of the iconoclastic relationship of culture towards those types of artistic imagination for which no conditions for understanding are available. Both suggestions demonstrate the significance of art criticism’s mediatory role, on the one hand between history and contemporaneity, and on the other between art and audience.Such a role includes the question of competency in mediation, for which a static reception from the position of only one theoretical paradigm or one system of cultural values is not enough. Competency in mediation, apart from implying insight into the pluralism of social values in all their antinomies, and the pluralism of opinions and beliefs (in which ideologies always have a tendency to mobilize all interpretations directed to them), it also implies a critic’s ability to adjust to different methodologies. This does not support acting without a disciplinary focus but the possibility of adapting to a number of different central points within the discipline which may multiply or expire. In this case, competency in mediation is preceded by the detection of an artistic and cultural paradigm, but also by an authoritative application of theoretical and conceptual strongholds, varying from case to case, always recurring and always authentic.

Using the ethno-methodological theoretical paradigm and the historical method, the author comes to the conclusion that culture, politics and the artistic atmosphere that enriches space form an indivisible structure of events and phenomenological perception of the culture of resistance in modern society. The culture of civil resistance present in art is inseparable from political movements and opposition to repression. Political protests have also become a form of performance that the author seeks to observe from a broader context of street culture in the theoretical perception of the epistemology of space. This way, the tendency and ability to see the meaning and spirit of various manifestations is allowed to come forth. Socio-cultural preconceptions of various art forms and manifestations as well as their historical, political, and ideological conditioning in the global environment and (post) globalism are all explored. As the main research subject, the author takes caricature and art of aphorism, perceived as traditional forms of resistance, and performance, due to its visual and expressionist-based message as a relatively new artistic practice and a more effective form of civil resistance. By determining the meaning of phenomena using linguistic and visual representations, the author notices the political nature of their expression. In this paper, the author strives to break the 'modern dogma' by which politics and art are in an inherent conflicting relationship. Therefore, the basic thesis of the text is the author's effort to bring the goals of politics and art conceptually closer through the basic proclamation of human freedom. The foundation of freedom and creative choice constitute their common and fundamental value. Performance establishes a rational compromise in which the government and opposition groups believe in the democratic potential of their role, pacifying the space in the new circumstances. Ideological fervor and propaganda goals make an unfortunately thin line between the cultured and the uncultured.

The Martial as the Mystical: Taekwondo as Orthodox Christian Contemplative Practice Brian Butcher (bio) INTRODUCTION This article explores the potential for interpreting taekwondo as an Orthodox Christian contemplative practice. Certainly it is not an obvious connection given the disparate origins of the Korean martial art and the various Eastern Christian traditions. Yet, viewing the former in light of the latter seems both viable and valuable. Taekwondo is currently the most popular martial art in the world, exceeding seventy million practitioners in over two hundred countries; it is also a core sport in the Olympic Games. Eastern Christians around the world train and compete in taekwondo at all levels. Even so, to what extent is the distinctive ethos of Orthodox spirituality generally amenable to the practice of martial arts? Further, how do the specific characteristics of taekwondo favor its integration into an Eastern Christian Weltanschauung? BACKGROUND Such questions invite engagement with a lively conversation currently taking place concerning the place of sport within Christian spirituality.1 In A Brief Theology of Sport, Lincoln Harvey provides an adroit reading of the historical ambivalence of the church towards sport, including European martial arts. Saint Paul made conspicuous use of multiple athletic metaphors, contending, “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8 English Standard Version). Nevertheless, the Christian tradition has been reluctant to affirm a “full-bodied” appreciation of sport. Harvey observes that a dissonant chord resonates, whether one sounds out the New Testament, the patristic period, the Middle Ages or the Reformation. This chord results from three “notes”: the modest use of sport as a source for the rhetoric of Christian discipleship, or even as a practical tool for bodily health (“instrumentalism”); the critique of sport as marred by pagan associations, conducive to the inflammation of the passions at best and idolatry at worst (“opposition”); and a reluctant approbation of sport as an intractable dimension of human experience which had to be tolerated, and might even be co-opted (“popularity”).2 Harvey’s “historical soundings,” particularly the ambiguous approach of the [End Page 197] church to the jousting tournaments of medieval knights, invite reflection on how one might approach taekwondo as a sport similarly characterized by martial play. Click for larger view View full resolution Adriano Biriba © 2017 João Saidler Fotografia. Following his review of the relevant history, Harvey elaborates an original theoretical paradigm. It is one that inspires the present probing of “the martial as the mystical” (although the author does not himself proceed in this direction). His thesis is that sport can be fruitfully conceived of as a “liturgical celebration of contingency,” as an activity which enables people to have a communal experience of gratuitousness. The uniqueness of sport consists in its being “autotelic,” such as serving no purpose but itself (namely, the arbitrary internal aims of any given game). Sports are played, as we like to say, “just for fun,” even if they often leave numerous personal and social goods in their wake.3 In response to his recognition of the need for further thought on the matter, I would argue that martial arts, in contrast, can be seen as occupying a distinct space on the margins of sport, between sports themselves and certain cardinal activities which lie beyond it. Taekwondo as “played” within the Olympics, for example, certainly fulfills Allen Guttmann’s definition of sport, which Harvey cites approvingly: “a regulated, physical contest that serves its own ends.” Nonetheless, its distinct provenance and purpose are belied by what actually transpires. Consider that while it is a ball that is kicked (or head-butted) in soccer; or bumped, smashed and blocked in volleyball; hit in baseball (with a stick); or thrown and caught [End Page 198] in football, it is other people who are the object of such actions in martial arts and this reveals that these pursuits lack the element of arbitrariness characteristic of sport. In some quarters, like the Korean military, taekwondo is still officially practiced as a preparation for actual combat; in other quarters its primary end is physical...

ABSTRACTThis article explores the art practice of Hannalie Taute vis-à-vis the discourses of ordentlikheid (respectability) and the volksmoeder (mother of the nation). I begin by offering theoretical frameworks for these discursive structures, as well as a selective historical trajectory of their development, with major emphasis on Afrikaner femininity and Afrikaner women's domestic labour. Through a reading of selected embroidered works by Taute, I speculate on the degree to which the artist revisits and subverts particular narratives of Afrikaner ethnic identity and “women's work” to imagine new modes of feminine expression that challenge the rigid conventions of ordentlikheid and the volksmoeder. My analysis of Taute's embroidery is informed by the concept of radical decadence, which provides a theoretical paradigm for making sense of the strategic use of excess, pleasure, and the taboo in the practices of contemporary women artists working with craft materials. The works were thus selected for their materiality and thematics, which I argue appropriate archaic signifiers of Afrikaner femininity to produce irreverent counter-narratives that resist the policing of female sexuality and other forms of patriarchal subjugation.

This article traces the development of art from the Renaissance to contemporary media practice. It looks at how images are made in relation to the main theoretical paradigm of the age. Moving from the window metaphor/Cartesian thought to media art/Ontology it focuses on how presence has been central to how we view and understand images and how they place us in the world. This paper develops the theoretical relationship of art practice based on presence as being central to how our identity is linked to our relationship to otherness through technology.