[spectre] CONF: Modernisms in an extended territorial context (Vienna, 7 May 24)

[Andreas Broeckmann LEU]

From: Dr. Miroslav Halak
Date: Apr 25, 2024
Subject: CONF: Modernisms in an extended territorial context (Vienna, 7 
May 24)

Belvedere 21, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna, May 07, 2024

Modernism is not a compact phenomenon of art history. By the end of the 
19th century, the art scenes in the established cultural centres were 
becoming increasingly diverse, but the paradigm shift did not take place 
only in Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna. From 1900 onwards, very 
intense impulses for the entire modern art movement came from the 
various regions of Central and South-Eastern Europe. But how can the 
territory of networked and exchanged modernity be delimited? Where are 
the geopolitical boundaries of what we call “modernity” in the broad 
cultural sense?

How far has the notion of a new art that breaks its formal norms and 
deconstructs social conventions penetrated? Rather than drawing 
alternative maps that, with a diachronic approach, re-establish the 
boundaries of the modernist world again and in a different way, we are 
also moved to examine this question critically in the light of current 
revisions of concepts such as nation, border, identity, history, myth, 
etc. On the occasion of the exhibition In the Eye of the Storm, the 
Austrian Gallery Belvedere is organising a scientific symposium with the 
aim of discussing with experts on this period of art the question of the 
situation of Modernism in the peripheral centres of art history. 
Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, as well as Kosice, Krakow, Brno, Miskolc, and many 
other places, but also small regions outside the mainstream of 
international galleries, have an exciting scene, or simply solitaires of 
art, without which Modernism could not achieve the global impact it did.

Program

Unteres Belvedere

09:00 In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine
Exhibition Tour with the Curators
Konstantin Akinsha, Katia Denysova

Belvedere 21

10:30 Greetings and Introduction
Stella Rollig (Belvedere, Vienna)

Panel I: Preconditions / Situation / Continuity / Discontinuity
Moderation: Konstantin Akinsha

11:00 Brno Modernism and the Formation of Regional / Transnational 
Identity, 1900-1939
Matthew Rampley (Masaryk University, Brno)

11:30 Vsevolod Maksymovych: from Secession to Futurism
Maryna Drobotiuk (National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv)

12:00 How to get to a common art history of European Modernism. A 
somewhat naive proposal
Dorota Kudelska (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)

12:30 Discussion and lunch break

Panel II: The fetishism of folk art and the crime of ornament
Moderation: Alexander Klee (Belvedere, Vienna)

14:00 From Folk to Abstract: Ukrainian Embroidery as a Medium for 
Modernist Experimentation Katia Denysova (The Courtauld Learning Centre)

14:30 Ornament and Avant-garde
Konstantin Akinsha (Freelance curator and researcher)

15:00 Slovak Modernity in Search of Identity. Between Folklore and 
Industrialization
Miroslav Haľák (Belvedere, Vienna)

15:30 Discussion and coffee break

Panel III: Peripheral centres
Moderation: Miroslav Haľák

16:00 Lemberg / Lwów / Lviv on the map of European modernism Andrij 
Bojarov (Media artist, researcher of Lviv and Ukrainian avant-garde, 
independent curator)

16:30 Czech modernisms as pioneers and not epigones? Networks between 
Prague, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest and L’viv
Marie Rakušanová (Charles University Prague)

17:00 Bridging Borders: Abstract Artistic Dialogue between Paris and 
Central European Peripheries
Flóra Mészáros (Metropolitan University of Budapest)

17:30 Final Discussion and break

18:30 Keynote Lecture
Myroslava Mudrak (The Ohio State University)

The event will be held in English. The symposium begins at 9:00 am with 
a guided tour of the exhibition "In the Eye of the Storm" at the Untere 
Belvedere. The lectures will follow at 10:30 am in the Blickle Kino of 
Belvedere 21. During the all-day event, visitors will be offered water 
and hot drinks during the breaks.

In order to participate, please register at: 
https://www.belvedere.at/event-tickets/8917.


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Modernisms in an extended territorial context (Vienna, 7 May 24). 
In: ArtHist.net, Apr 25, 2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/41730>.