Artistic Testimonies Research Articles

“Space shapes a person; constraints free the soul”: Watercolour sketches of Moscow panel-block apartments on the eve of demolition.

This visual anthropology project was informed by a series of plein-air water-color sketches of panel-block apartment buildings, painted in conversation with ethnographic research participants in Moscow in 2021. Such housing, built on an industrial scale during Nikita Khrushchev’s mass-housing campaign between 1955 and 1964, and which came to be nicknamed khrushchevkas, became ubiquitous across the Soviet Union. In 2017, in Moscow, Russia, panel-block apartments were threatened by the renovatsiya campaign, which asked residents to vote to demolish their own homes, now declared dilapidated housing. The author painted a number of these apartment buildings slated for demolition, recording details in the construction, ornamentation, and topography of each apartment block. The author also gathered testimonies of artists who live in-, and whose artistic practice revolves around such housing, asking participants to share their artistic process, memories of growing up and living in such housing, and feelings about the prospect of losing their home. While supported by the majority of the population, the renovatsiya campaign would erase local histories, revealing the state’s authoritarian attitude towards its own citizenry, but much worse, it served as premonition for Russia’s renewed aggression in Ukraine, which, less than a year later, caused a widespread political and humanitarian disaster, closing all possibility for further research.&nbsp

Queer identity in the contemporary art of Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT This article explores contemporary artistic practices in Kazakhstan that challenge narratives on national belonging and identity through the notion of queerness. It discusses artworks created by artists Saule Dyussenbina, Natalya Dyu and Kuanish Bazargaliyev, the artistic duo Kreolex Center, and the advertising agency Havas Worldwide Kazakhstan, which were created as a reaction to global discussions around gender and sexuality happening in and between various countries. It seeks to scrutinize different approaches and aspects presented in each artwork and argues that the overall strategy present in all the artistic testimonies is humour. While drawing on key concepts and categorizations of humour that permit the uncovering of the ways in which humour creates specific knowledge and identity, this article looks at humour techniques more broadly and builds on the argumentation provided by Uroš Čvoro and Chrisoula Lionis that opt for humour analysis connected to temporality and its perception in the works of art.

Self-Patronage versus State Patronage: Polish and Polish-Jewish Artists React to the Trauma of March ’68

Social tensions in communist Poland were exacerbated with the launching of anti-Zionist propaganda in June 1967. Warsaw students organized numerous protests after the authorities tightened censorship, and later banned the staging of Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady at the National Theater, considering it to be anti-Soviet. Government forces stifled student protests with numerous arrests, at times causing serious injuries, dismissals from the university, and ultimately the expulsion of Polish citizens of Jewish origin from Poland. The restrictions affected Holocaust survivors who were employed in art schools and cultural institutions. This group included Artur Nacht-Samborski, Jonasz Stern, Eugeniusz Eibisch, and Gizela Szancerowa, among others. Notable artistic testimonies of the experience of March ’68 events and their effects were left by painters and sculptors from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, its students, graduates, and lecturers: Witlod Masznicz, Artur Nacht-Samborski, Krystiana Robb-Narbutt, Ewa Kuryluk, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, and others in his studio - Barbara Falender, Henryk Morel, Grzegorz Kowalski, and Krzysztof M. Bednarski. In Cracow, artists belonging to the Wprost (Explicit) group, including Maciej Bieniasz, Zbylut Grzywacz, Leszek Sobocki, and Jacek Waltoś, commented on the events of March ’68 boldly and on an ongoing basis.

Sustentabilidad económica de un teatro menor latinoamericano

The purpose of this article was to analyze modes of theatrical production and development looking, through this analysis, to answer the question: how to think about the economic sustainability of a Latin American minor theater? The research method started with interviews with theater artists who have ten or more years of experience in the field and whose productions are not recognized as belonging to the logic of the cultural industry. At first, the goal of this research was delimited to arrive at the idea of minor theater. The methodology of analysis is based on the testimonies of artists and contemporary theater groups (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina), as well as the review of bibliography regarding theater production and financial sustainability in the field of culture. The testimonies collected allowed to question the argument that minor theatrical production is entirely dependent on state resources and contributions, at the same time that it points to the fragilities that this type of artistic creation faces concerning its economic stability.

Deciphering the Land: Artistic Cartography in the Illustrated Cabreo of the Congregation of the Gentlemen of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Tivoli, Italy (1661–1808)

In 1661, the Congregation of the Gentlemen of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, a lay pious organization devoted to religious and charitable services in Tivoli, Italy, commissioned from land surveyor Gismondo Stracha an illustrated cabreo of its endowments. Cabrei were private estate records, frequently commissioned by large estate owners in Europe between the fifteenth and the nineteenth century. Illustrated cabrei, such as this one from Tivoli, were elegantly decorated and included watercolour maps and drawings of lands, vegetation, and buildings. They could indeed be works of art, perceived by the landowners not only as administrative documents, but also as artistic testimonies of the commissioners’ legacy in the territory. The private cadastral maps included in illustrated cabrei predate the implementation of land surveying and mapping in the national land registration systems in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century. Unlike public cadastral records, the maps in cabrei combine geometric accuracy with artistic flair and are accompanied by extensive annotations and regular updates to facilitate the management of the estate. The cabreo of the Congregation of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is therefore invaluable in documenting the evolution of landscape, economy, cartography, and social life in Tivoli throughout the centuries.

Imágenes para el recuerdo. Japón en las fotografías de Oleguer Junyent del Instituto Amatller de Arte Hispánico

From the moment of the opening of Japan in the 19th century, the West experienced an enormous fascination with this country, an attraction that generated many artistic testimonies during the time of Japonisme. From 1868, the knowledge the West had of Japan increased through commerce and, later on in the Meiji era, through visitors who, in increasing numbers, travelled to the Land of the Rising Sun as a leisure destination. Regarding photography, the interest on Japan materialized itself in the commercialization of sets of pictures with codified iconographies. These souvenir photographs turned into a thriving business, but at the same time they became a means by which the image of Japan was disseminated. In contrast to this phenomenon, most common in the Meiji period, this paper addresses the photographic work by Oleguer Junyent, a Spanish artist who visited Japan around 1908 as part of a world tour. Through his photographs, we will study how this Western figure established a different set of parameters in his observation of Japan, offering a particular point of view alternative to commercial standards. Although the object of our study are the photographs kept in the Amatller Hispanic Art Institute, which are part of the photography collection of the Adolfo Mas Archive, we will also support our investigation on the work Roda el mon i torna al Born, the travel book Junyent published after his return in 1910, which is profusely illustrated.

Deciphering Ontologies: Divination and "Infinition" in Classic Maya Inscriptions

In many forms, important trends of current anthropology, like the ontological turn, have been left aside in the analysis of the ancient artistic testimonies of the indigenous people of the Americas, thanks to the inevitable gap and lamentable misunderstandings between ethnology, archaeology and art history. In this text, we retake the notion of infinition, a term coined by Martin Holbraad in his work about Cuban divination, Truth in Motion (2012), to explore two epigraphic and artistic testimonies from the courts of the Classic Maya period (ad 250-900) and see how what has been seen as mere calendarical manipulation by scheming rulers and elites can be read as ritual acts of divination which created new identities, altered the ontological constitution of their participants and challenged the boundaries of human (and divine) time and space. By reading Maya art a la Roy Wagner, that is, as invention, we want to encourage the very much needed criticism of the tired notion of justification of power that seems to pervade Maya Art interpretation among archaeologists and epigraphists.

A obra, o rosto e a mensagem. Reflexões sobre a construção da área portuária de Porto Alegre.

A investigação pretende aportar uma análise sobre o processo de construção do porto de Porto Alegre, em diálogo com a então ideologia política da capital rio-grandense. Tendo em vista os inúmeros matizes que compõe o caso de estudo, projetos e relatórios oficiais, além de testemunhos artísticos, fotografias e bibliografia sobre o tema serão estudados afim de documentar a evolução da paisagem costeira, desde seus antecedentes até a implantação do projeto “Porto Alegre porto de mar”. O objeto deste artigo é parte integrante de uma pesquisa mais ampla que se dedica a analisar a história e os significados que envolvem o Cais Mauá. A hipótese desta tese parte da premissa de que o lugar em estudo carrega vestígios de valor tanto estético como cultural, signos da história de Porto Alegre, capazes de transmitir as etapas evolutivas da área portuária da cidade e a metamorfose da paisagem no imaginário urbano.

The Democracy of Nature

The close connections between Danish art and politics in the 19<sup>th</sup> century were not limited to the period of the adoption of Denmark’s first democratic constitution and the story years that followed, up to the country’s defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864. From around 1800, landscape art became in many ways a mirror of the political situation in the country. The first half of the 19th century offers a wide range of artistic testimonies to the political inclinations and preferences in relation to landscape art. In the words of Jens Juel (1745–1802), C. W. Eckersberg (1783–1853), J. Th. Lundbye (1818-1848), P. C. Skovgaard (1817–1875) and Vilhelm Kyhn (1819-1903), we can make out the emerging contours of a new political and artistic agenda. This article focuses on a number of case studies from the Danish Golden Age that will be used to discuss the relationship between art and politics in this period.

Sources and Serendipity. Testimonies of Artists’ Practice

Reseña del libro:Sources and Serendipity. Testimonies of Artists’ Practice Editado por Erma Hermens y Joyce H. Towsend. Publicado por Archetype Publications Ltd. Londres, 2009 164 páginas, 77 ilustraciones a color, 30 x 21,5 cm. ISBN: 978-1-904982-52-4

Biodeterioration of wall paintings in caves of Murcia (SE Spain) by epilithic and chasmoendolithic micro algae

Cave wall paintings in Murcia are of worldwide archaeological interest because they are some of the few surviving artistic testimonies of the socio-economic reality of European pre-history. However, in recent years an increase of the microflora around and occasionally covering the paintings partially or totally has been observed. In our study fifty-two algal taxa were identified, among which the Cyanophyceae predominated, followed by Bacillariophyceae, Xanthophyceae and Chlorophyceae. Extreme values of the Photosynthetic Active Radiation, relative humidity and temperature are presented for each taxon in these cavelike environments. Epilithic and chasmoendolithic microalgal growth was found to be involved in the deterioration of the substrate. The algae were observed to grow in three types of formation (designated mat, patina and crust) that varied in colour from grey to black, passing through green, yellow, brown, pink and red. Besides biological, chemical and physical deterioration, the cave paintings have also suffered human intervention. This first diagnosis should be followed up by research into the best way of protecting the cave paintings from damage caused by microalgal growth.

The shape of Vesuvius before the 79 A.D. eruption according to a new finding from a Pompei fresco and Vesuvius central cone history in the last 2000 years

The history of Vesuvius and its central cone or Great Cone (Gran Cono) is important because it enables us to improve our understanding of the structural evolution of Somma-Vesuvius. Apart from geological and stratigraphic studies, investigations of the literary and artistic testimonies can also help to clarify some unresolved problems. Recently a detailed study of the consequences of the 1631 eruption on the volcano morphology as well as that of the following volcanic activity has shown that the present central cone was formed in the last few centuries after that eruption. With regard to the history of the central cone prior to the 1631 eruption, rare writings and iconographic records help clarify this question. In this short communication we announce the discovery of a new image representing Vesuvius before the 79 A.D. eruption identified in a fresco from Pompei excavations. This fresco could confirm the interpretation of a well-known Strabo quotation according to which there already existed a large caldera prior to the 79 A.D. eruption.