The Artist as Historian (of Aesthetics). Richard Long and the History of an English Point of View

Author(s): Karolina Kolenda / Language(s): English Issue: 217/2016

In the art of the last few decades, we can see changes and returns to anthropological, social, or scientific research. Activities undertaken by artists were often characterized by abandoning interest in aesthetic issues for social activation or the development of new technologies and materials. Criticism and the history of art recognize this scientific turning point in art as a sign of our time. However, this perspective is not so much a result of new interests in art, but rather a change of interest in the reflection on art. The latter is also visible in the field of other scientific fields such as history or cultural geography, for which the cognitive value of the art of earlier decades and centuries has also become evident in recent years. More and more evident becomes the need to revisit these trends in art, which has so far been analyzed in the rather limited context of the development of international avant-garde art, and the emphasis on formal works of art. In the 70s of the twentieth century, when the conceptualism and directions of dematerialization of the artistic object dominated the art, both artistic practice and reflection on the subject were dominated by the ideals of the international avant-garde. The art of land (Land Art) functioned in this optics as one of many moves towards extending the field of sculpture. Based on selected works by Richard Long, the cognitive values of the art of the land created by the artist in the United Kingdom are recognized, which allow him to be considered a creator interested in local conditions of the relationship between artist and nature, resulting from 18th and 19th century concepts of picturesque and rural space as an English national space.

Artur Żmijewski – Plener rzeźbiarski. Świecie 2009. Artysta na polu nauk społecznych wobec zjawisk w przestrzeni industrialnej

Author(s): Bernadeta Stano / Language(s): Polish Issue: 217/2016

This sketch refers to the presence of the artist in the field of social research. The author looks at the situation when the artist on his own initiative enters into the field of scientific research, especially concerning the social effects of the political and economic transformation after 1989. The sculpture and its artistic interpretation were examined in the form of a film by Artur Żmijewski, which came into life during the realization of The Souvenir of Cellulose within the framework of the project Awakening in Świecie in 2009. Both implementations are a kind of group experiment within the wider project Awakening of a curator Karina Dzieweczyńska. The main objective of the artist was to investigate how in an altered socio-economic situation – with the market economy – the form of an open air is working out under the auspices of an industrial plant.

Zagadnienia związane z fundacją drewnianego kościoła w Haczowie w kontekście najnowszych ustaleń chronologicznych

Author(s): Piotr Łopatkiewicz / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 3/2020

The aim of this article is the presentation of the Author’s research results concerning the issue of the founder of the wooden church in Haczow, one of the most important sacral architecture monuments in Poland. Dendrochronological studies prove that the sanctuary was built around 1459. The church in Haczow is most definitely one of the oldest, and best preserved monuments of wooden sacral architecture on the Polish lands. The Author assumes that the Piotr Łopatkiewicz founder of the church most likely was Casimir Jagiellon. However, other important roles in the building of the church, were played by then village administrator, Mikołaj Lemkircz, a juror of the Higher Court of German Law at the Castle in Sanok and Mikołaj Klukwicz, townsman and town councillor from Krosno, as well as owner of Haczow village. Presumable contribution to the foundation made by Mikołaj Klukwicz (Krosno councillor) points to Krosno as the nearest and the largest municipal centre from which some of the craftsmen performing carpentry work could have come. A separate issue is the person who was the founder of the paintings in the aforementioned church. The paintings were created (as we know) in 1494. According to the Author, their founder was Stanisław Jeżowski living in Haczow, a noblem and the leader of High German Court in Sanok. In 1494, the year of the painting foundation, Jeżowski borrowed 600 zloty in gold from Mikołaj Juriowski by way of pledge on the Haczow village. This debt may have been directly related to the foundation of the paintings in the Haczow wooden church. Another reason to believe that he founded these paintings is the double presence of the depictions of St. Stanislaus (the founder’s patron saint) in the painting decoration of the church presbytery.

Cosmic Prison Break: From Gnostic Movies to Conspiracist Cosmology

Author(s): Jan A. Kozák / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The article thematically and structurally analyses a group of films usually designated as “gnostic films”. These films share a common ideology as they postulate the existence of two worlds – one illusory and the other true. The hero must escape the false world and reach the true one. As the majority of gnostic films appeared at the turn of the millennium, the article also suggests what contributed to the emergence of these films. As the cosmology of the films bears a close similarity to the cosmology of conspiracy theories, the emergence of the films is shown to be a part of the sociocultural development of the conspiracist mindset entering the mainstream. In the 1990s, conspiracism was out of the closet and gained popularity, but it was not yet perceived as an imminent societal threat and therefore was not a taboo for Hollywood filmmakers. The 1990s were also the decade of a unipolar world order where the absence of an inimical Other engendered anxiety about the system itself, which is reflected in the analysed films.

Jak Rosja walczy z „tęczową zarazą”, czyli dyskurs anty-queer we współczesnej rosyjskiej przestrzeni kulturowej

Author(s): Anna Świetlik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

This article is an attempt to outline the anti-queer discourse in the contemporary Russian cultural space. The analysis focuses mainly on the film Firebird (Жар-птица), which is a very rare example of queer cinema aimed at a wide Russian audience. In order to indicate the features of the homophobic policy of the authorities towards cultural representations of queer issues, the author references research conducted in the field of social sciences and certain press materials devoted to the premiere of the film. The analysis proves that, despite the intensely promoted (both in political and cultural spheres) anti-homosexual policy, the mass consciousness of the Russian audience was more liberal than it was perceived (at least to a certain extent), and the actions taken by the authorities and politicians did not bring expected results.

НАДЕЖДА ПЕТРОВИЋ У ПРИЗРЕНСКОЈ И ВАЉЕВСКОЈ РАТНОЈ ВОЈНОЈ БОЛНИЦИ: трагање за временом и местом настанка два музејска предмета

Author(s): Vladimir Krivošejev / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2023

One of the symbols of the suffering of Valjevo and Serbia in the great typhus epidemic from the first half of 1915 is the famous Serbian painter Nadežda Petrović. As a volunteer nurse, looking after the sick, she herself succumbed to this dangerous disease. In addition to various historical texts, two visual documents are related to Nadežda’s stay in Valjevo: a photograph, in which Nadežda, with a group of doctors, stands in front of the hospital building, and an art painting that Nadežda painted, but did not write the name or year of origin. It was considered to be her last work of art and that is why it was later, after the place and year of the painter’s death, named Valjevo Hospital in 1915. New historical sources and additional analyses have indicated that the mentioned photograph was certainly not taken in Valjevo in 1915, during the First World War, but during the First Balkan War, in Prizren in 1913. This knowledge opened the possibility that the famous art painting was not painted in Valjevo, but in Prizren. Among other facts, this possibility is indicated by the fact that the hospital where Nadežda worked and died in 1915 was located in the barracks, and the picture shows hospital tents, as Nadežda mentioned in one of her letters written in Prizren in 1913.

Zachowania gestyczne i wrażenia olfaktoryczne literackich i filmowych transbohaterów

Author(s): Anna Kujawska-Kot / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2022

The article deals with the problem of non-verbal forms of gender identity communication by transsexual characters. The aspects of pretransition and transition, such as the gestural behavior and the manifestation of one’s psychological sex by the selection of the right smell, were usually placed on the margins of scientific inquiry. However, properly selected literary and film fragments may serve as appropriate research material to present such issues as the role of gestures, facial expressions, ways of walking, the meaning of micro-movements of the face, and the choice of perfumes. The paper attempts to answer how the gestures, facial expressions, ways of walking, and even the choice of perfume of transsexual characters shape gender (re)presentation in public space as well as what functions play gestural behaviors, facial micro-movements, and perfumes in the non-verbal communication of transwomen’s and transmen’s gender identity. In the study of cultural texts, a montage technique was used. It appears that in the process of self-creation and the representation of their gender identity, the characters give important meanings to various trifles. Textualizing themselves, transwomen and transmen often fetishize their own faces; and on the other hand, experiencing their own faces can astonish with subtlety and synesthetic character. Intentionally selected gestural behaviors and perfumes are embedded in their bodytext to mark gender affiliation. Although these choices refer to the stereotypical body language of a woman or man and their smell, they do not have pejorative overtones. The ontic status of the stereotype is changing. It becomes an inspiration, a signpost, and a vehicle for communication.

Wprowadzenie. Laboratoria kultury współczesnej. Część 2

Author(s): Alicja Kędziora / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

Spirala i amplituda. Dialektyka sztuki

Author(s): Cezary Woźniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The article presents a certain dialectic of art, the dialectic developed on the basis of such concepts as essence, potentiality, completeness, sense and phenomenon. The completeness of art is hereby understood as the maximum actualisation of its potential, the pretence of art would be therefore something, in which the potentiality of art isn’t elaborated on. What would be the sense of art then? It would be the process of certain actualisation of art potentiality. The history of art then presents itself as the amplitude whose extents are drawn by the level of the actualisation of that potentiality; from the pretence of art to the appearance of immanence, the epiphanic experience of the omni-completeness. This might have been the most maximalist vision of art, which can be found, for example, in Schiller, Schelling, Heidegger or Chögyam Trungpa.We can also imagine a different variant of dialectic of art, in which its story would have unfolded in form of a spiral. The history of art would then have been driven by the need for the realisation of its telos. It would have been the achievement of complete sense of art inherent to its concept, which may be derived from Hegel’s aesthetics.Can this spiral and this amplitude be intersecting? And if so, how could this affect understanding of art? It seems that the dialectic form of spiral provides art with the terminological integrity, the possibility of its nominal creation, whereas the form of amplitude reinforces art as the epiphany of omni-completeness. Finally, the art would be the form of energy flow on the certain horizon, horizon of art; the form of flow into its condensation points of completeness; and the moments of transparency of this eternal flow…

Teatralność troski. Spektakl Kochana Wisełko, Najdroższy Zbyszku jako egzemplifikacja feministycznej etyki troski

Author(s): Monika Machowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

This article undertakes an attempt to prove validity of the claim that the play Kochana Wisełko, Najdroższy Zbyszku can be seen as an exemplification of feminist ethics of care, especially in reference to its interpretation by the theorist Nel Noddings. The methodological tools used, include the textual analysis of the script as well as the adaptation of phenomenological approach. The categories of a general assessment introduced alongside this reflection are as follows: relationality and receptivity, as well as the practice of empathy, care, understanding and attunement to other people’s needs. The article proved the adequacy of the assumption that the aforementioned categories had been expressed in the play and that they can be clearly ascertained in its reception by the viewers.

“For Us, It Was a New and Difficult Task”: Czechoslovak Embassy Buildings in the 1918–1939 Period and the Construction of State Representation

Author(s): Petr Klíma / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

After 1918, the cultural construction of Czechoslovak identity and the search for forms of state representation in architecture also imprinted itself on the preparation and realization of buildings abroad. The embassy buildings – in addition to the pavilions and expositions at international exhibitions – were to petrify the shared idea about the advanced character of Czechoslovak culture, architecture and art industry. In the first half of the 1920s, architects looking for contemporary solutions for this typology were given the opportunity to implement them. More often, however, the “universal” internationally comprehensible morphology prevailed. More than the formal aspects of the objects, though, this study focuses on the instrumentalization of architecture for political goals, on the analysis of the mechanisms and processes leading to the provision of their designs and realizations, and on the rendering of an environment with often contradictory interests of the actors.

Who Formed the Architectural Appearance of Trnava in the Years 1918 – 1945?

Author(s): Linda Osyková / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

The appearance of modern Trnava is the joint work of many important Czech, Moravian, and Slovak architects. The building of the District Health Insurance office is a national heritage monument also listed in the DOCOMOMO register, and there are many more buildings constructed in Trnava in the 1918 – 1945 period that deserve national heritage status. Proof for this contention is the quality of the designs from the architects then active in Trnava, many of whom are credited with realisations in other Slovak towns that are already under national heritage protection. No less impressive work was rendered by the contractors and their workers, as confirmed by the inspection reports and indeed the users of the buildings. However, a major share of the credit for the completion of this exceptional array of publicly beneficial buildings should be assigned to the activities of the management in the era’s medical facilities, schools, public offices, organisational supervisors, national governmental bodies, and others who made the decisions and allotted state aid for construction. And in turn, the state itself assisted this development through the passing of various laws on construction and financial support. The archival documents confirm enormous efforts by certain institutional heads and public officials who worked hard to improve health care, schooling, and housing in the city. These efforts extended to the adherence to legally set construction deadlines, and to the creation of buildings of undeniable architectural and technical quality, many of which serve their original function even today.

Powstanie i cechy palety barw Kangxi wucai 康熙五彩 oraz falangcai 珐琅彩 – spotkanie kultur a estetyka podwójnej obcości. Część I: Problematyka terminologii i badań nad porcelaną eksportową

Author(s): Agnieszka Pudlis / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2023

This essay focusses on issues connected with research into the history of exported porcelain from the Far East. To this end, it discusses the literary context of the expressions “the family of roses” and “the family of greens,” and also the genesis, main features, and current terminology relating to the two most widespread techniques of glaze-painting decoration (Kangxi wucai 康熙五彩 and falangcai 珐琅彩).The article discusses the most important techniques of decoration that preceded the development of the Kangxi wucai palette and the relations between technological development and the taste of the period. It also indicates the important items in Polish collections, especially in the National Museum in Gdańsk. From the holdings of this museum, the author selects a plate decorated with wild geese on Lake Taihu. An analysis of the plate – with regard to the technology of its production, aesthetics, and iconography – is the main element in the article. Polish items are presented in the context of important European collections: the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée Guimet, the National Museum in Oslo, and the Museo Correr in Venice.The author formulates a new term in art theory: the aesthetics of double foreignness. It makes it possible to give a name to a phenomenon that develops in the process of reception and analysis of objects produced in one developed and isolated civilization, intended for and commissioned by a second civilization.

Зараждането на иконата в първите векове от възникването на християнството

Author(s): Ivelina P. Ivanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

This article presents the way of the iconography from the nascency of the Christian religion, the first centuries of persecution and the profession of faith in the underground catacombs, which became the natural home of the first Christian images, to its recognition as an equal religion in the IV century.

„I czyńcie ją sobie poddaną; i panujcie nad rybami morskimi, i nad ptactwem niebieskim, i nad wszelkim zwierzem, który się rusza na ziemi”

Author(s): Andrzej Pitrus / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2023

The article focuses on various strategies of artists who use live animals in their works. The author presents several examples of works which, in many cases, raised a lot of controversies. His aim is not to judge, but to discuss different approaches, which have one thing in common: they all come from the tradition of conceptual or preconceptual art.

"Kdo zpívá, nemá v srdci zlo...." anebo role hudby v životě Emila Dominika Josefa Háchy

Author(s): Viktor Velek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2023

The paper is the first attempt to map Emil Hácha’s relationship to music and the music scene, providing also an overview of how he was perceived by the music scene. It covers the music-related agenda in the Archive of the Office of the President of the Republic. The text also brings a classification of musical compositions associated with Hácha: gifts, adoration pieces on the theme of Emil Hácha and satirical political songs.

Wymysiöejer łod – czyli stan badań nad skrzyniami malowanymi z Wilamowic

Author(s): Justyna Majerska-Sznajder / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2022

Wilamowice is a cultural phenomenon on the ethnographic map of Po¬land. Settled in the 13th century by settlers from Western Europe, it has maintained their separate identity for years. From the beginning of the scientific world’s interest in Wilamowice, the main objects of researchers were costumes, customs and language. Although the first attempts to docu-ment the painted Vilamovicean chests were made at the beginning of the 20th century as part of the Sprachinsel Fälschung project, this topic was overshadowed by a more “ideologically meaningful” local costumes or language. Apart from Roman Rainfuss, no one has published issues related to the subject of the Vilamovicean chests phenomenon – wymysiöeryś łóda – until modern times. The ongoing cultural revitalization, focused on the emic perspective, allowed us to look at this phenomenon in a broad, in¬terdisciplinary scope. In addition to an attempt at formal characterization, determining the types and manufacturers, the state of research to date and the preserved specimens, it is possible to grasp a broader cultural con¬text. What was the ancient meaning of painted chests? What were their functions? What beliefs were associated with this piece of furniture? What caused such a small number of surviving copies? How are they stored to¬day? How do they currently function in the culture of Wilamowice? The content of the article attempts to answer these and other interdisciplinary questions, taking into account the narrative of this micro ethnic minority.

Kościół ewangelicki z Bytomia-Bobrka. Wybrane problemy konserwatorskie w obiekcie o charakterze tymczasowym wykonanym z materiałów nietrwałych i nietypowych

Author(s): Krzysztof Wieczorek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2017

The article presents selected preservation problems encountered during the relocation and reconstruction of the partly burnt wooden Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession from the Bobrek District of Bytom erected in 1932 in a light-frame construction with elements of glued wood. Restoration and construction works concerning the church’s foundation in the Museum “Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park in Chorzów” lasted from November 2016 to September 13, 2017, and were completed with the solemn reconsecration of the church. The church from the Bobrek District of Bytom belongs to a group of prefabricated wooden objects of temporary character erected in the area of Upper Silesia in the interwar period of the 20th century. The church was manufactured by the “Christoph Und Unmack” AG Niesky (O.L.) company. During the restoration works it was necessary to solve a number of problems resulting from: untypical construction of the girders and main supporting and stabilizing elements which were made of glued wood; use of non-durable building materials in the form of low quality wood, as well as insulating, covering, installation and decorating materials; temporary and cheap character of the object, which was the reason for erecting the church from the Bobrek District of Bytom with the use of the most simplified and thus the easiest structural solutions and joinery. Additional obstacles encountered during the works included: inventory mismanagement, dismantling and security of the object during translocation and storage of the dismantled material; the lack of the clear legal requirements concerning the scope of fire protection of wooden objects and the knowledge of the properties of recommended preservative and protective agents; the need to adapt the facility to new functions in accordance with the modern requirements of the Building Law Act of July 7, 1994; the current opinion of the local community on the value of the original church decor originating from the period when the church was mainly used by the evangelical community of German nationality.

OUR DEATH IS OUR STRONGEST SURVIVING TRADITION: A Guest Essay by the Artist of Our Cover Image

Author(s): Ukjese van Kampen / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

In Canada, Yukon First Nations are politically powerful and, when viewed by an outsider, everything appears to be progressing well. But the adoption of the Western political model has a downside. We have generally sacrificed our culture for that political power. The loss of our culture has resulted in many social problems and this essay discusses what has resulted from those problems, specifically our high death rate. Ironically, our death ritual, the Potlatch, is one of the strongest surviving cultural traditions we still exercise, while our languages, laws, art, lifestyle, and spirituality are almost all forgotten.

Dezvoltarea abilităților de citire cu ajutorul instrumentelor Boomwhackers în contextul dizabilității asociate

Author(s): Janka-Eszter Veres / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2023

In this paper we chose to study the influence of music therapy with the help of Boomwhackers instruments on the following skills: sustained attention, short-term memory, phonemic hearing and reading fluency in students with severe and associated impairments, among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. I considered this type of intervention useful because the effectiveness of music therapy is proven in many situations both in typical children and in those with atypical development. The students participating in the study have music among their passions and because of this, their implication activities was achieved without much difficulty. Also, the use of Boomwhackers was of high interest for the students and they were always excited to participate in the activities. The results obtained in the study prove the effectiveness of the intervention, as improvements were observed in all the evaluated areas.