CALL FOR PAPERS: Objects of Memory, Memory of Objects. The Artworks as a Vehicle of the Past in the Middle Ages, International PhD student conference, 5–6 December 2013 Masaryk University in Brno, in cooperation of the University of Padova and the Centre of Early Medieval Studies, Department of Art History of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.
This PhD student conference deals with the objects and their memory. Its principal aim is to reconsider the memorial objects in their context, as well as the memory of particual objects. In fact, some treasure pieces are said to have been owned or donated by a prestigious person (bishop, martyr or emperor) but these pieces or legends appear years after the death of this person. In this case, the object creates the memory, and the prestige of the institution which owns them. We will try to discuss, with these goals in mind, the ideas of memory and oblivion.
«Memory and oblivion, all hail! Memory I say in the case of good things, and oblivion in the case of evil » (Greek Anthology, X, 67). The mentioned words by Macedonios Consul, from the first half of the sixth century, are an ideal start to understand the anxiety about things remembered and forgotten that pervaded medieval society: the idea of Memory was deeply ingrained in philosophy of that time, as well as it was inherent in the artwork production.
The central topic of the international PhD student conference is artworks study that is intrinsically linked to the notion of memory. Our aims are twofold – to understand how icons, books, reliquaries and other artefacts became vehicles of meanings, meanings which are now mostly incomprehensible but must have been clear to its contemporary audience and to understand how these objects could have changed the memory of the place in which they were preserved.
This colloquium sets out to ask how artworks became “monuments of unageing intellect”, as Yeats wrote in 1928. With this goal in mind, we hope to engage in dialogue across a wide range of perspectives on the sense of memory transmitted by artworks. Thus, the conference aims to raise and assess variety of issues such as the relationship with ancient art, the political use of images, the local references to the history, the artworks used as a gift, the pedagogical meaning of art, the cultural hybridization, the (mis)inter- pretation of the past or recreating the past by a specific use of artworks.
Candidates may submit proposals that should include an abstract (max 2500 characters) and a brief biography. To offer a paper, please contact the organisers of the conference: Alžbeta Filipová, M.A. (Mazaryková Univerzita – Université de Lausanne), Francesco Lovino, MA (Università degli Studi di Padova), Laïna Berclaz, M.A. (Mazaryková Univerzita – Université de Lausanne) and Mrg. Zuzana Frantová (Mazaryková Univerzita – Université de Lausanne).
The conference will be held in English. Conference proceedings will also be published in English.
The final date for receipt of proposals is 1 September 2013. Participants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposals by October 1st 2013.