Global Perspectives II

Die Vortragsreihe "Global Perspectives on Art & Ecology" wird im Sommersemester 2023 fortgesetzt. Die Ursachen der Klimakrise sind in ästhetischen Wahrnehmungen und kulturellen Gewohnheiten verankert, die jahrhundertelang nicht in Frage gestellt wurden. In dieser Vortragsreihe diskutieren Kunst- und Wissenschaftshistoriker, wie solche visuellen und kulturellen Praktiken identifiziert und analysiert werden können, um Kunst als transformative ökologische Kraft zu verstehen. Im Wintersemester 2022-2023 haben die ökokritischen Wissenschaftler Halyna Kohut, Omar Olivares Sandoval, Oliver Hochadel, Nazar Kozak, Jesús Muñoz Morcillo und Sophia Farmer in Fallstudien und Einführungsvorträgen Kernfragen des Diskurses behandelt. Im Sommersemester werden sich Kunsthistoriker:innen wie Peter Krieger, Nazar Kozak und Monica Domínguez Torres mit den Herausforderungen ökokritischer Perspektiven in gegenwärtigen und vergangenen Kontexten beschäftigen, von der frühneuzeitlichen Naturwahrnehmung bis zur heutigen Symbiose von Kunst und Aktivismus.

The series of lectures, "Global Perspectives on Art & Ecology," will continue in the summer semester of 2023. The causes of the climate crisis are rooted in aesthetic perceptions and cultural habits that have not been challenged for centuries. In this lecture series, historians of art and science discuss how such visual and cultural practices can be identified and analyzed to understand art as a transformative ecological force. In the winter semester of 2022-2023, ecocritical scholars Halyna Kohut, Omar Olivares Sandoval, Oliver Hochadel, Nazar Kozak, Jesús Muñoz Morcillo, and Sophia Farmer have addressed core issues in the discourse through case studies and introductive lectures. In the summer semester, art historians such as Peter Krieger, Nazar Kozak, and Monica Domínguez Torres will focus on the challenges of ecocritical perspectives in present and past contexts, from early modern perceptions of nature to today's symbiosis of art and activism.

Leitung:
Jesús Muñoz Morcillo & Oliver Jehle

Ort:
Geb. 20.40 Architektur, Hörsaal 9 (HS9), teils online/hybrid

Uhrzeit und Termine:
Donnerstags, 17.30 – 19:00 Uhr

Link für Zoom-Teilnehmende:
https://kit-lecture.zoom.us/j/64572686671?pwd=bys0N1dmY2tkQm15dDN2N1JYSDFMUT09

Bestätigte Vorträge:

27.4.2023 STRATUM – Gegenwartskunst als geo-ästhetische Kritik nicht-nachhaltiger Megastadtentwicklung im Globalen Süden
Peter Krieger, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

25.05.2023 (Post-)Byzantine Akathistos Cycles and the Natural World: An Ecocritical (Re)Interpretation
Nazar Kozak, Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

15.6.2023 Precious Mutations: Pearls, Critters, and the Order of Nature
Mónica Domínguez Torres, University of Delaware
 

Precious Mutations: Pearls, Critters, and the Order of Nature

Nowadays ecologists and environmental scientists pay a good deal of attention to the global populations of amphibians and reptiles for they are regarded as indicators of the health of the environment—these specific animals are heavily dependent on fresh water and unpolluted soils for their survival, and therefore are highly sensitive to climate change. Dramatic declines in many species of frogs and snakes in recent years, for example, have been connected not only to the loss of their natural habitats and their overexploitation as edible and medicinal products, but also to changes in air and water quality, temperatures, and patterns of precipitation. In the early modern Spanish world, these critters and the connections that they were perceived to have with their surroundings also arouse great interest, not just among naturalists but among artists as well. Believed to have wondrous origins, such creatures were often recreated by gold- and silversmiths using various types of gemstones to form different body parts—in particular, artists used large, irregular pearls, gems that like the featured animals were believed to originate in an preternatural way. This presentation shows how baroque pearl pieces related to larger early modern ideas about the natural order. Usually confined to brief discussions of style and iconography, naturalistic jewels depicting amphibians and reptiles embodied both contemporaneous notions of artistic creativity and virtuosity, and larger ideals of human supremacy over nature.

Mónica Domínguez Torres is Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware. She received her PhD in the History of Art from the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on the arts of the early modern Iberian World, specifically on cross-cultural exchanges between Spain and the Americas in the period 1500-1700. Her upcoming book Pearls for the Crown (in press with Penn State University Press), examines European images and objects connected to the Atlantic pearl industry. This research has been supported by the NEH, Getty Research Institute, Bard Graduate Center, and Renaissance Society of America, among others.

(Post-)Byzantine Akathistos Cycles and the Natural World: An Ecocritical (Re)Interpretation

Vortrag von Nazar Kozak, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine

The Akathistos cycles are a series of pictorial scenes that illustrate the Akathistos hymn for the Virgin. Emerging around 1300 CE they gained prominence as one of the most important subject in late and post-Byzantine art. In his book Nectar and Illusion, Henry Maguire was the first scholar to discuss the Akathistos cycles in the context of the Byzantine discourse on nature. However, he characterized their place in this discourse as negative. My lecture aims to expand on Maguire's work by providing a critical assessment of the ecological significance of the Akathistos cycles. Contrary to Maguire's view, I argue that the Akathistos cycles celebrated the natural world as a realm of divine presence, rather than distancing viewers from it. This was achieved through the visual representation of nature-derived metaphors addressed to the Virgin, as well as by helping viewers recall these metaphors even when direct depictions were absent. Additionally, the fact that the Akathistos cycles emerged during challenging times of climate change serves as a testament to the belief that environmental calamities are subject to divine control.

 

STRATUM – Gegenwartskunst als geo-ästhetische Kritik nicht-nachhaltiger Megastadtentwicklung im Globalen Süden

Vortrag von Peter Krieger

Abstract

Der Vortrag behandelt das epistemische Potential von Bildern, besonders von Kunstwerken, in den gegenwärtigen naturwissenschaftlichen und politischen Analysen des kritischen Zustands des Planeten Erde; konkret, es ist ein bildwissenschaftlicher Beitrag zur kontroversen Anthropozän-Debatte. Die Medialität und Materialität diskursprägender Denk- und Schlagbilder (Warburg) determiniert eine spezifische politische Ikonografie des Anthropozän. Die Analyse der Bilder der urbanisierten, kontaminierten und erodierenden Erdoberfläche ist integriert in die Forschungen zum sogenannten „geological turn“, der die ökologische und speziell geologische Forschung als Thema der Geisteswissenschaften und der Kunstproduktion erweitert.

Dieses auf Alexander von Humboldt basierende Konzept wird erläutert am Beispiel der ökokritischen Gegenwartskunstausstellung STRATUM, die der mexikanisch-deutsche Künstler Luis Carrera-Maul 2022 in Mexiko-Stadt realisierte. STRATUM materialisierte eine Imagination posthumaner Zukunft der zerstörten, von Techno-Masse zugedeckten megalopolitanen Landschaft (im zentralmexikanischen Becken von Mexiko-Stadt). Die Ausstellung lud zum Nachdenken über die Neuverhandlung des Verhältnisses von Stadt und Natur im Anthropozän ein.

Der Vortrag zeigt auf, welches ökokritische Potential ein Kunstwerk im Kontext inter- und transdisziplinärer Forschung entfalten kann, auf welche Weise Kunst als Forschung eine katalysierende Funktion in den Debatten zum Anthropozän übernimmt, und, wie bildwissenschaftliche Forschung Orientierungswissen produziert.
 

Peter Krieger

  • Kunsthistoriker / Bildwissenschaftler, Promotion Universität Hamburg, Graduiertenkolleg Politische Ikonografie.
  • Seit 1998 Forschungsprofessor am Institut für Ästhetische Forschungen und Professor an den Graduiertenstudiengängen Architektur und Kunstgeschichte der mexikanischen Nationaluniversität UNAM.
  • 2004 bis 2012 Vizepräsident des internationalen Kunsthistorikerverbandes CIHA/UNESCO.
  • 2016 Aby Warburg Stiftungsprofessor, Warburg Haus Hamburg.
  • 2017 Gastprofessor an den Universitäten Tübingen und Regensburg.
  • Forschungen und Publikationen zur Politischen Ikonografie, Ästhetik, Geschichte und Theorie von Stadt und Landschaft, mit einem Schwerpunkt auf die Geo-Ästhetik im Sinn Alexander von Humboldts.

CV online: https://www.esteticas.unam.mx/peter_krieger

 

Global Perspectives I

Leiter:
Jesús Muñoz Morcillo

Ort:
Geb. 20.40 Architektur, Hörsaal 9 (HS9), teils online/hybrid

Uhrzeit und Termine:
Donnerstags, 17.30 – 19:00 Uhr

Link für Zoom-Teilnehmende:
https://kit-lecture.zoom.us/j/64572686671?pwd=bys0N1dmY2tkQm15dDN2N1JYSDFMUT09

3.11.2022 The Power of Flowers: Сarpets, Nature and Genealogical Myths in the Eighteenth-Century Cossack Hetmanate
Halyna Kohut, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Ukraine

17.11.2022 Geoasthetics of the Wasteocene: Contemporary Artistic Research of Mexico City’s Lakes
Omar Olivares Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma de México

01.12.2022 Animals on the Move. The Global Zoo in the Long Nineteenth Century
Oliver Hochadel, CSIC – Institución Milá y Fontanals (IMF), Barcelona

08.12.2022 Kenji Yanobe's Atom Suit Project in Chornobyl: An Ecocritical and New Materialist Interpretation
Nazar Kozak, Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

09.02.2023 Greek Mythology and the Aesthetics of Earthly Entanglements. On the Book Anthropozän? Die Ökologische Frage und der Mensch, der sie stellt (2022)
Jesús Muñoz Morcillo, Karlsruher Institut für Technology

16.02.2023 The Role of Waste Management and Ecocritical Discourse in the Conservation of Italian Fascist Monuments
Sophia Farmer, University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

The causes of climate emergency are rooted in aesthetic perceptions and cultural habits that have not been challenged for hundreds of years. In the series of talks titled „Global Perspectives on Art and Ecology, “ art and science historians discuss how to identify such visual and cultural practices and negotiate art as an ecological transformative power. Renowned scholars such as Halyna Kohut (currently visiting research fellow at KIT), Nazar Kozak, and Oliver Hochadel will delve into ecocritical perspectives and art responses to ecological disasters.

16.02.: The Role of Waste Management and Ecocritical Discourse in the Conservation of Italian Fascist Monuments
 

Throughout Italy, there are monuments, urban and agricultural structures, and ephemera that date to the era of fascism. While Italy has worked to distance itself from this dark legacy, these sites remain visible and even functional. Many of the monumental urban planning projects such as the Roman Forum and the environmental programs that resulted in new agricultural lands and national parks such as Gran Paradiso have been divorced from their fascist origins and incorporated into the cultural legacy of the nation. Yet others bearing overt references to Benito Mussolini and the fascist regime reveal and even at times promote this difficult history. The question of what to do with these sites and objects has been the subject of much debate both within scholarly circles and popular media. Reframing the dialogue surrounding the conservation of fascism’s legacy through the lenses of waste studies and waste management can reveal the lasting environmental implications of both preservation and erasure. This paper will serve as an exploratory assessment of notable but controversial sites of fascist material culture that are treated as both historical fragments worthy of preservation and as piles of trash in need of clean up and material redistribution. As a starting point, I reflect upon the DUX trees at Monte Giano, the Monument to Italians Fallen in Africa at Syracuse, and the Bolzano Victory Monument. I propose contemporary artistic and scholarly interventions as a low impact and low waste solution, which could allow trouble or counter the fascist signification of these sites. With this study, I seek to initiate a larger conversation around the role of waste in the discussion of fascist environmental projects, colonial monuments, and victory markers.

09.02.: Greek Mythology and the Aesthetics of Earthly Entanglements. On the Book Anthropozän? Die Ökologische Frage und der Mensch, der sie stellt (2022)
 

As part of the lecture series "Global Perspectives on Art and Ecology," Jesús Muñoz Morcillo presents the newly published book "Anthropozän? Die Ökologische Frage und der Mensch, der sie stellt" (Baden-Baden: Tectum, December 2022).

The causes of climate change and species loss are rooted, among other things, in cultural habits and aesthetic ideas that have not been questioned for centuries. Identifying and challenging these helps warn the world about cultural practices heading toward planetary catastrophe.

The book "Anthropocene?" delves into the cultural history of ecology and asks both about the invention of nature in words and images and about the human being (anthropos) who poses the ecological question.

In his talk, Muñoz Morcillo will discuss the general outlines of the book with a particular focus on the interplay between reinterpretations of Greek mythology and aesthetic approaches in contemporary ecological discourse.

8.12.: Kenji Yanobe's Atom Suit Project in Chornobyl: An Ecocritical and New Materialist Interpretation 

In this paper, I examine the Atom Suit art project staged by the Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe at the site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in June 1997. Resisting any simplistic definition in terms of its genre or media, the Atom Suit project emerges in multiple avatars – as an actual suit (an object), a performance featuring the suit, and a set of photographs, documenting the performance. The scholarship amplifies a sense of complex imbrications by portraying Yanobe's project as a discursive chimera that produces divergent messages and affects: comical and serious at the same time. I aim to further complicate the issue by drawing inspiration from two theoretical perspectives that are still relatively new in art history -- ecocriticism and new materialism. The ecocriticism with its focus on the environmental significance of artworks suggests considering the relation of the Atom Suit project to the Chornobyl disaster on the site of which it was staged. The new materialism, in turn, with its questioning of the very divisions between nature and culture suggests focusing on the effectivity of nonhuman materialities in the production of the project. As the world faces harsh ecological emergencies, the proposed dual line of inquiry not only contributes to the timely discourse on art and ecology but de-privileges humans in that discourse, exposing the artistic agency of matter.


Vita

Nazar Kozak is a Senior Research Scholar at the Department of Art History at the Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received his Ph.D. from the Lviv Academy of Arts. Kozak's research has primarily focused on Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. He has authored the book Image and Authority: Royal Portraits in the Art of Kyivan Rus of the Eleventh Century (Lviv, 2007). More recently Kozak also developed an interest in contemporary art studies, in which he explores art’s agency in crises such as revolutions, wars, and ecological disasters.

1.12.: Animals on the move. The global zoo in the long nineteenth century
Oliver Hochadel
           

The zoological garden is a child of the nineteenth century. Initially a Western European phenomenon it soon spread around the globe. By 1900 there were zoos on every continent. From early on these institutions were very much aware of one another. Their specific challenges, in particular how to keep exotic creatures alive as well as the global animal trade, bound them together. This mutual interest generated numerous “zoo journeys”, publications, surveys, and reform schemes, transcending national borders, well before the zoos formally organized themselves in international associations in the twentieth century.

 

This paper will apply new approaches from global history to the history of the zoo. It will attempt to trace “the rise of global uniformities” (C.A. Bayly) with respect to how zoos were built, run and understood by its diverse publics, ranging from naturalists, acclimatizers, animal traders and educators to the general public. Yet this paper will also ask for the specific local contexts of individual zoos. How can these two perspectives, the global and the local one, be combined? How might we talk about the zoos of Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calcutta, Melbourne and Philadelphia in a fruitful manner?

 

This paper will describe the nineteenth century zoo as a large network in which knowledge but also animals and people circulated. And it will emphasize that this network was uneven, patchy, hierarchical and transient. This global zoo network bore the imprint of the colonial world order and was shaped by the asymmetries in political power, economic resources and knowledge about the natural world.

 

Vita
 

Oliver Hochadel is a historian of science and a tenured researcher at the Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC Barcelona). He held academic positions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and Spain. His research focuses on the relationship between science and its publics. His case studies include electricity as a public science in the German Enlightenment, the history of the zoo in the nineteenth century, the history of human origins research in the twentieth century and the urban history of science around 1900.

17.11. Geoasthetics of the Wasteocene: Contemporary Artistic Research of Mexico City’s Lakes
Omar Olivares Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma de México
 

Despite the fact that the extensive lakes of Mexico’s basin were dried up through colonial and modern enterprises, the utopian urbanistic view of Mexico City as the “Venice of America” persists as an imagined counterpart of the dystopian chaos and the formless expansion of the present-day metropolis. Although the water is no longer visible, the lakes have evolved as an identifiable space of material and symbolic implications for the city’s inhabitants. I examine two contemporary artistic initiatives: the Mexico City-based artist Adriana Salazar's All Things Living, All Things Dead: Animist Museum of Texcoco Lake and Encyclopedia of Living Things; and the work of the interdisciplinary research collective, Mexican Institute of Intersticiology. I explore how both initiatives shift the paradigms used to conceptualize the relationship between water and the city, urbanity, and the natural environment that has historically shaped common notions of living in Mexico City. These geoaesthetic research projects engage a conjoined cultural/natural history of Mexico City. They are part of a longer practice in Latin American art of working with the aesthetics of remnants, trash, and fragments. I argue that these practices bring attention to larger environmental ensembles, by investigating the layers of soil as a space for collective memories, material and political entanglements, and agencies that resist becoming a past. As research sustained through unsteady epistemologies, continuously moving back and forth from the invention of their object to the investigation of specific materiality, they can be thought in conjunction with critical engagements towards reflections of the so-called Wasteocene.
 

Vita
 

Omar Olivares Sandoval is Associate Researcher in Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City. He is the author of the book: From Landscape to Anatomy: José María Velasco and the Nineteenth-Century Scientific Knowledge (UNAM, forthcoming).

The Power of Flowers: Сarpets, Nature and Genealogical Myths in the Eighteenth-Century Cossack Hetmanate
Halyna Kohut
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine
3.11.2022


Die Veranstaltung findet im Hörsaal 9 als hybrides Event statt.

In the eighteenth-century Hetmanate (a semi-autonomous Cossack state within the Russian empire), carpets with lavish floral patterns became an object of desire. The Cossack elite assembled these luxury items in rich private collections, ordered to depict them in portraits, and even organized carpet production in local workshops. Scholars studied these carpets patterns predominantly from the formalist perspective. In this lecture, I approach this material from the theoretical framework that will help to understand better the overlooked complex overlap between artistic representations of nature, the elite’s self-image, and social inequality. It combines social art history and Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory of cultural capital with the ecocritical concern about the role of nature in establishing the power hierarchies in society. I focus on the social significance of the floral patterns of the Hetmanate carpets in relation to the carpets’ owners as a social class (the Cossack elite). The floral patterns of the eighteen-century Hetmanate carpets not just simply created the aesthetically appealing domestic environment. Rather, I argue, they served the Cossack elite’s aspirations for the recognition of their noble status, as well as for the social distancing from the subordinated classes of town people and peasants. Specifically, I explore the link between the carpet floral patterns and the genealogical myths that derived the Cossack’s noble origins from the Orient.
 

Vita
 

Halyna Kohut is an associate professor at the Faculty of Culture and Arts at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. She received her PhD from Lviv National Academy of Arts. Her research interests concern the eighteenth-century textile and the twentieth-century women artists.

 

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