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In 2011–2012 the last phase of the restoration of the medieval mural paintings in the church of Saint Demetrios at Patalenitsa (Pazardzhik district, South Bulgaria) was carried out. Mural fragments are preserved in various parts of the church inner space: mainly in the altar space, on the south wall and on the piers under the cupola and arches. The lower registers of the altar depict standing saints, amongst which are included not only bishops, but also monks, martyrs, holy women, etc. The frontally depicted images of the bishops in the altar of the church in Patalenitsa reflect a familiar pattern, which shows that they date from an earlier period – before the middle of the 12th century. The remaining fragments on the western side of the eastern piers under the cupola, in between which the templon of the Medieval temple was probably located, are valuable for identifying the patron of the church. Identifying Saint Demetrios on the column also confirms the assumption that the medieval church was dedicated to the Thessaloniki martyr. The Patalenitsa murals are an example of a planar linear trend in painting. Some iconographic features, the insecure poses, stiff gestures, the outlined typified faces, the geometricized and contingent folds suggest for a commission, carried out separately from the artistic center. The closest stylistic parallel to the Patalenitsa murals could be pointed out in the painting of the church of Saint Sophia at Ohrid, the narthex of the Saint Sophia at Thessaloniki and the murals of a few other churches located on the territory of Southwestern Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. The specified stylistic parallels point us in the direction that the mural paintings in Patalenitsa probably date from the middle or the second half of the eleventh century.
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Resumen: La historia reciente de Chile está marcada por tres grandes hitos: la efímera empresa socialista durante la década del setenta, el largo gobierno militar que habría de extenderse hasta finales de los ochenta, y la reforma económica liberal impulsada por la dictadura y perfeccionada en democracia. La trilogía cinematográfica de Pablo Larraín, Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) y No (2012), constituye un caso paradigmático de lo que acaso podríamos denominar como un cine de la memoria, al representar distintos estadios de dichos procesos históricos. Tony Manero retrata la violencia de la dictadura, Post Mortem se detiene en los convulsos días posteriores al golpe de Estado, y No ahonda en los pormenores de la transición, cubriendo, así, los distintos momentos axiales del pasado. Este trabajo pretende analizar la trilogía de Larraín desde las tensiones políticas y sociales que definen las discusiones en torno a las políticas de la memoria. Abstract: The recent history of Chile is marked by three major milestones: the brief socialist experiment during the seventies, the long military government which lasted until the late eighties, and the neoliberal economic reforms pushed by the military government and perfected in democracy. The cinematographic trilogy of Pablo Larraín, Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012), is a paradigmatic case of what we might call a Cinema of Memory: Tony Manero portrays the violence of the dictatorship period, Post Mortem breaks on the convulsive days following the Coup d’état, and No reflects on the details of the democratic transition, covering up in each film a different axial moment of the past. This paper aims to analyse the Larraín trilogy from the political and social tensions that circumscribe the discussions around the politics of memory in Chile.
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historical monument, restoration, repainted icons, Brancoveanu art sculpture, gilding, atypical interventions, microclimate
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This paper emerges from an artwork developed by the author that sought to mobilise the affective potential of sound and image to communicate beyond the species lines—in particular with a species of tardigrade, Macrobiotus macronyx. Tardigrades were chosen due to their incredible gift for survival: they are resilient to extremes in temperature and climate, while some species may have already survived five mass extinctions. Could they, then, help us to survive our own mass extinction? Or is the formulation of such a question fundamentally extractive and anthropocentric? Through the construction of an artwork, the author aimed to develop less Promethean forms of knowledge-sharing and creation while simultaneously resisting some of the more universalising tendencies common to new materialism. Through what Anna Gibbs has called “mimetic communication,” the artwork aimed to open up alternative configurations for knowledge-sharing within a multidirectional, but always partial, network of human and nonhuman actors.
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The firm maxim of the old aesthetics, postulating that art can develop only within the framework of tradition, was subjected to radical critique in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century by modernist painters. The destructive work of avant-garde artists assumed the form of absolute rejection of the old aesthetical norms and rules. This practically meant that, based on the free use of whimsicality (useful for such artists), the creative imagination was completely emancipated. Thus, pluralism of experimentation replaced creation, thereby turning the sphere of art into something like a minefield. Perhaps that is what Marcel Duchamp’s ironic work, “Mona Lisa with mustache” meant to express… The mediating factor that the avant-garde implemented into the work of art, can most precisely be designated today as “creative arbitrariness”, inasmuch as this is the actual support of modern innovative art.
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The topic of this article is the phenomenon of contemporary art. The author discusses the questions as to what is contemporary and what art is today, as well as the distinction between art and life, fiction and reality. The article addresses the question as to who/what legitimates art as existence.
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The article aims at providing a picture of how Bratislava was portrayed in the texts of the Slovak author and painter Janko Alexy (1894 – 1970), written between 1921 and 1968. The paper combines the knowledge of Slovak and Czechoslovak culture and history with biographical and artistic facts about Alexy’s life and work. With regards to the biography of the author, the article drew on his own memoirs, Ján Abelovský’s monograph, texts by Ján Smrek and various period articles. The paper also makes use of the work of O. Mongin, P. Málek and V. Barborík. It provides an insight into the relationship between the city and the subject and reconstructs the complex image of the period circumstances in its background. It outlines several periods that document Alexy’s changing attitude towards the city and the gradual national appropriation of Bratislava. The identity of the current capital of Slovakia was changing from a multi-ethnic town to a city occupied by a single majority ethnic group. These shifts are illustrated on several Alexy’s texts.
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The portfolio presents the life of a photographer, and notable member of a group known as the Slovak new wave, Pavel Pecha in two worlds, while the first one is real and the second one is an alternative created from the negative of bad qualities of the real world. By the author's words, the second one is of higher value for him, since it became his mirror or picture, and also because this world is more perfect and pragmatic than the real one. His existency becomes a motion between these two worlds, and the same could be said of motion between sky and earth. His portfolio, which here consists of two cycles of photographs titled Painting with Camera and My Intuitive Theater, is accompanied by professional texts by various important art theorists and art critics. In his works, as well as in texts about them, we learn about many possible contexts and narratives, such as similarities to the works of Peter Greenway, or Italian realistic cinematography, or Fellini’s film “La Strada”, also they refer to the tradition of wandering circuses and Gypsy life under the open sky with the strong blast of freedom, and on the other hand to surrealism and expressionism. The photographs of Pavel Pecha are filled by fantasy, absurd situations and play, but on other hand they are determined by the real world, where also violence and evil can appear. Thanks to his photographs, viewers can experience an exciting adventure, which could be also a metaphor for transcendence through images, which are more like from another world. Like all great artists, Pecha intuitively feels, that he does not belong in the real world anymore, and that is the essence of art. The main cycle My Intuitive Theater is his most important cycle, which is full of incredible, surreal and absurd imagination. Scenes from his imagination becomes mystical in the autumn and empty field, where the author becomes part of the universe. Pecha creates an illusion of the infinite, rituals and the mythical period of mankind into the world of collective memory. So, come on a journey with us to enter the mind of this famous photographer, who lives somewhere between heaven and earth.
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In this article author contrasts possibilism (the view that art is about the logically possible and that it cannot be about the impossible) with impossibilism (the view that art can be and sometimes is about the logically impossible as well). Author argues in favor of possibilism. The main insight is that since impossible objects are necessarily non-existent art cannot be about them, it has to be about something that can exist. Also, author formulates five more detailed views about the issue. Further, author discusses related notions like imaginability and conceivability. Author holds that Hume’s insight that an object cannot be conceived as non-existent counts in favour of possibilism. Besides, author introduces the distinction between real and apparent content of the work of art, believing that this distinction can be relevant in the discussion between possibilism and impossibilism. In the rest of the article author analyzes several prima facie counterexamples to possibilism (Jean-Luc Picard, Anna Karenina, paradox of patricide, Escher’s graphics) and tries to explain them away.
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The globalized world is still in the phase of late capitalism, signified by the establishment of multinational corporations, globalized markets and work, mass consumerism and the fluid flow of capital. The question of the criticism of art towards the capitalist system, its ideology and consumerism is therefore still current and is readdressed in this contribution. Considering this issue, the recurrent theoretical reference is American materialist aesthetician Fredric Jameson, who was among the first to define culture and art in the context of late capitalism. In the article the author revises Jameson’s critique of art addressing consumerism and demonstrates that he did not consider the relevance of the means of consumption as regards the cultural logic of late capitalism. She claims that in order to open space to examine contemporary art as being critical towards consumerism, one also needs to consider the ontological changes that have occurred to art and pay attention to performative art, while Jameson was still focused on a representational mode of art. By being performative and also setting out actions outside of spaces that were traditionally designed for art, in the space meant for consumption, art has much a better chance to act politically, which Jameson wished to see from art which addresses consumerism, but did not. The author argues that if one is to seek critical or political art in late capitalism, those would be the cases of artistic interventions into the means of consumption.
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The research aims to explore the potential film festivals can offer to create their city brand. Film festivals are special events of shared experience, which combine the production and consumption of culture. They gather various participants such as producers, film studios, media representatives as well as spectators. The festival and the place where it happens become the attraction point for internal and international high-value tourism. It also offers a unique opportunity to a city to build its brand as a place of culture. Thus, to become a nationally and internationally recognizable, a must-visit cultural place, which could attract business and create job opportunities. Furthermore, some cities outperform national economies and become a vital driver of social, economic, technological, and cultural development. Such cities motivate more qualified and culturally conscious people to move to live in them.
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Zuzana Sláviková: Kreativita a integrácia v umeleckej edukáciiPrešov : Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, 2013. 202 s. ISBN 978-80-555-0879-5
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This article discusses the four-volume study The History of Sexuality written by Michel Foucault in the last years of his life. The text begins by consideringthe reasons for the famous “turn” that took place inthe project between the first and subsequent volumes of the work. Then, the specificity of the history ofthinking (or the history of problematization) is brieflyexplained, i.e. the Foucauldian method of analyzing cultural phenomena. Finally, the article discusses in detail the leitmotif of Foucault’s work, i.e. an attempt to answer the question of how Western sexual ethics was shaped, and the concept of desire, central to the sexual discourse. The analysis of The History of Sexuality was deepened by the content of the lectures given by the philosopher at the Collège de France.
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The theme of the sorrowful mother has been present in music for centuries. The medieval sequence Stabat mater dolorosa brought many excellent interpretations. As far as the music of Polish composers in the 20th century is concerned, the first name to be mentioned is Karol Szymanowski and his masterpiece: Stabat Mater, Op. 53 (1926). This work, using a text in Polish and referring to folklore, set one direction for the interpretation of the theme of the sorrowful mother in the Polish music of the last century. It was continued by Andrzej Panufnik in his touching interpretation of Gorzkie żale in the suite Hommage à Chopin for voice and piano (1949), and particularly Henryk Mikołaj Górecki in his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1976). The second line is marked by compositions referring to the Latin tradition, with no clear references to Polish themes – such as Stabat Mater by Roman Padlewski (1939) and Stabat Mater by Krzysztof Penderecki (1962). The article outlines both lines of interpretation of the “Mother weeping” motif in the works of Polish composers of the 20th century on the example of the above-mentioned masterpieces of Polish musical culture of the last century.
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The Stabat Mater poem, which describes the suffering of Blessed Virgin Mary under the cross on which Jesus – her Son – is dying, has become a universal theme which inspired composers of various ages and origins and found its expression in numerous musical interpretations. From among over 400 compositions which set the text of the sequence to music, a large proportion are 18th-century works (mostly – late baroque) of Italian provenience. Attempting to interpret a musical composition with text of the 18th century, one has to take into account the theory of affects and musical rhetoric, which make the text dependent on music both on the emotive and symbolic level.The paper will examine the Stabat Mater compositions in the rhetoric context, referring to three main levels: inventio, dispositio and decoratio. The common and individual tendencies will be articulated, evident by the appropriate choice of the key, tempo and rhetorical figures, as well as by some melodic and rhythmic motives or harmonic structure having function of the special illustrative-symbolic signs. The nodal points of the work will be presented as well as the requests of man directed at the Mother (the second part of the sequence) assuming varying intonations of supplication. The function and the message of the compositions are advisable.In contemporary times Stabat Mater of the great composers resound mainly as concert masterpieces in church and secular interiors. The vitality of these interpretations after three hundred years from their creation most certainly bears witness to the composers’ artistry in their works and proves their significance not only for the music of the 18th century but also for the culture and faith of today.
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The following paragraph summarizes very well the essay of the author who works at the Lilliput Company of Oradea: “How do I view a theatre performance if I don’t have anything to do with it, if I’m designing its poster, if I’m in charge of its press, if I’m an assistant, if I’m performing in it (well, of course, then I don’t view it, or at least I don’t view it from the auditorium), if I’m rooting for the actor who stumbles because a box was put on the stage ten centimetres away from where it should have been put, and how do I view my own life after I’ve seen the theatrical life.”
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In the chapter Ropes and Puppets of his volume of studies titled Mephistopheles and the Androgyne, the historian of religions, Fantastic fiction writer, philosopher and university professor of Romanian origins, Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) presents miraculous examples of the unity and cohesion of the world through examples inspired by Oriental philosophy, shamanism and Indian fakirism. His text, translated into Hungarian by Ildikó Novák, discusses the way in which the rope (and the string) appears in primitive and non-European cultures, its connecting role in the context of explaining the relationship between human existence and the world, and the function of the puppet as a metaphor for understanding the ties between the individual and the gods.
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Johanna Bertóti’s theatre play for children, interspersed with poetry and musical moments, invites readers to a music school populated by songbirds, and not only. This space is an imaginary and playful one, but the problems, questions, and doubts of the character are not different from those which children of all times have shared, as the space of the school evokes the pedagogical environment that is familiar for many of us, somewhat inflexible, authoritarian, and failing to pay proper attention to the pupils.Nevertheless, Bertóti’s text does not have a rigidly critical character, but instead selects dysfunctional aspects from the relationships between parents and children, pupils and children, and between the pupils themselves. The main character, Varjú Karcsi (“Charlie Crow”), enrolled in the Schuhubert Music School in the hope of a career as a singer, which is also nurtured by his parents, is finally expelled due to a prank, but meanwhile we also witness the forging of an authentic friendship between children. The play was staged as a theatrical pedagogy production by the independent theatre company of the Waiting Room Project and premiered under the direction of Andrej Visky, on September 10, 2020, in the independent cultural space ZUG from Kolozsvár/Cluj, after which it will be performed in schools.
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The drama of Andrei Kureichik, the renowned Belarusian playwright, entitled Insulted. Belarus(sia), is inspired by the first months and the wavering events of the demonstrations which flared up in August 2020. The figures who get the word one after the other are based on real personality types, through which the author - by the multiplicity of voices and points of view - draws the net of causes and motivations which led to the manifestation of the social discontent and to the trespasses of the representatives of the power, given that in Kureichik’s drama one can hear and see both those suffering because of the ruling power and those who take advantage of the situation. The drama of Kureichik is at the same time a contemplation on the nature of the revolutions: what differentiates the Belarusian manifestations from the ones held in Prague in 1968, in Russia in 1991, or the ones held in Ukraine? The drama was staged as reader’s theatre in several languages in the context of an international event organized under the aegis of solidarity, and it can be read in the present issue of our journal translated by Éva Patkó, the lyrics being translated by Péter Demény.
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