“If These Walls Could Talk”: Street Art and Urban Belonging in the Athens of Crisis

Author(s): Myrto Tsilimpounidi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Political street art and slogans appear as visual markers of the shifting, complex discourses of power struggles, marginality, and countercultures that establish a new reality which must be seen and heard. As an art form, it is largely connected to and inspired by the existing social conditions. In the era of crisis, the central Athens of bygone years is now a terrain of conflict and metamorphosis, and the city’s walls are screaming a thousand stories. In other words, city walls are the canvas, and social conditions are the paint in a gallery of untold stories. Redefined symbols, decomposed stereotypes, re visioned aesthetics, and antiracist slogans are the tools for the transformation of walls into social diaries. In this light, street art is examined as a form of social diary, a visual history of marginalized and minority groups. Street art captures the need for self-expression in a changing environment, and street artists actively participate in the production of culture in the micro level by consciously contributing to the need for urban re-visions.

David A. Ensminger. Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011

Author(s): A. Kolesnikova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2015

Review of: Aleksandra Kolesnik - David A. Ensminger. Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011. 336 pp. ISBN 978-1-6170-3073-4.

Fashion Photography on Social Media: Insights from Hong Kong Fashion Image Producers

Author(s): Athena Choi / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

This study draws on fashion and culture theories to explore the influence of visual sharing culture on social media in fashion. The objective is to interpret the perceived creative values and the meanings of such cultural phenomenon from the perspective of fashion media industry in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews, in the exploratory semi-structured format, were adopted in which 20 fashion image producers in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding their increasing involvement in professional fashion image making and blogging. Among the 20 respondents, 12 respondents were younger generation of image producers with experience around 3 years, while 8 respondents have been in the industry for 15 years in average. The findings of this research indicated that the nature of visual oriented social media platform supports a new communication model between the new generation of fashion image producers and image audience. It is evident that there is a new trend for young fashion lovers to become successfully engaged in the industry as career bloggers who can create their styles and express their ideas through fashion imaging and sharing. On the other side, the professionalism and authenticity of the young generation of fashion bloggers are sometimes in questions. The finding is significant to further academic studies on the value of fashion visual communication on social media, and to business sectors, in which this study provides insight for young fashion lovers for career development.

Dlaczego Superman nie mógł być Żydem? Tożsamość żydowska w komiksie amerykańskim i frankofońskim

Author(s): Martyna Steckiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

Beginning with Superman and the Golden Age of American Comic Books, by Will Eisner’s graphic novels and Art Spiegelman’s underground stories, till the most recent examples of artists from both American and Francophone comic schools – there is a long history of Jewish motives in the comic stories. The article presents an analysis of the relations between the identity of the authors and their comic books. Among them are i.a. Art Spiegelman, Michel Kichka and Jérémie Dres who represent both different artistic generations and cultural backgrounds; yet, they all explore the issue of Jewishness and express their thoughts by using the language of comic books.

Żydowska Warszawa w obrazkach. Komiksowa antologia Złote pszczoły jako przykład kultury historycznej

Author(s): Gaweł Janik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

The following article aims to show places where pop culture merges with Jewish tradition on the example of comic books. The author tries not only to reconstruct the evolution of the genre and its changing reception but also to show the history of comic books which introduce Jews as their main characters. The emphasis is put on comics about the Holocaust and superheroes which have actually become a separate category of graphic stories. The author uses as an example the Polish comic anthology - Złote pszczoły, which is one of the rare examples concerning the comic art about Jews and which has been incorporated into the cultural heritage and rescue history. The article draws attention to the fact that this is and institutional comic in which animal symbols have an important meaning and the Holocaust is not mentioned by its name at all, which seems to be done on purpose.

Dna jako kod kulturowy

Author(s): Jan Domaradzki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2015

Science has always fascinated artists and many inventions and discoveries have become a source of artistic inspiration. Also, genetics and the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule (€[), represented by the double helix model, inspires visual arts and becomes a leitmotiv for artistic creativity, an object of art and even an artistic technique. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to describe cultural representations of deoxyribonucleic acid in painting, sculpture, architecture, cinema, music and functional art. It expresses the three main forms by which €[ is represented in modern art, such as: an icon, an index and a symbol. Nevertheless, €[ is also used by artists as a unique crafting tool and an artistic technique that can be observed in bioart. Another example of cultural presence of €[ is common speech, where it is one of the most popular metaphors frequently used in marketing, economic consulting, urban planning, sport and advertising. The paper argues that €[ is not only a biological code but a cultural one as well. It is a symbol of modern science and a cultural icon. And it is due to the fact that this ‘molecule of life’ is immensely rich in cultural meanings: it is associated with uniqueness, beauty and casual power. It is the essence of life and the source of immortality. At the same time, €[ enables to propagate new explanations of social ideas on human nature, heredity, destiny, the origins of life, identity, morality and the organization of society.

Publiczne konstruowanie historii. Przeszłość w prawicowej ikonografii

Author(s): Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2016

Saryusz-Wolska analyses covers of conservative weekly magazines to examine contemporary Polish right-wing iconography. Focusing on historical motifs, she highlights the mechanisms behind the construction of ‘us’ and ‘them’ or ‘enemies’ and ‘friends’ in visual discourses. Drawing on voices from both politics and the media, these right-wingers call attention to perceived threats – such as Europe, Germany, Russia, or refugees. The magazine covers studied here mirror those ‘threats’ by drawing on a simplistic and emotional symbolism. The European Union is likened to Nazism, Angela Merkel to Hitler. We also see collages that draw on historical iconography but in a contemporary context, such as refugees forcing Poland’s borders in the place of Wehrmacht soldiers. Thus the iconography of the right creates simplistic parallels and suggests false analogies.

Маскарадът в Драмско

Author(s): Iglika Mishkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2017

Basing herself on field studies in the villages of Kali Vrissi, Volak and Petrusa in Drama Region in Northern Greece, the author reviews the current state of the masquerade, which now takes place regularly between 6 and 8 of January. Banned after World War II and restored in the 1960s, the masquerade is today a part of the cultural heritage but also a living cultural practice whose elements (rituals, masks and verbal communication) have undergone remarkable changes through the years. Being a cultural construction that points to the past and unifies the heterogeneous population in this border region, every year the masquerade recreates the present and addresses day-to-day issues. Although different in each of the three settlements, the masquerade is a social phenomenon everywhere: from a traditional holiday it grew into an act of diachronic community presentation. At the same time the roles of those taking part in the masquerade are perceived by the local people not as a brief change of identity but as a special status.

Неформални методи в обучението на ученици в република Kипър

Author(s): Milen Zamfirov,Leontiou Leontiou / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

This paper presents summaries based upon the five-year-long personal application of non-formal teaching methods with students aged 13 to 21 in the Republic of Cyprus. The authors present the main areas of non-formal education they have experienced and applied personally, namely: theatre, sports, music, arts, ecological education and photography. A special place takes the use of information and communication technologies presented by the iPads.

Photography for Tomáš

Author(s): Marián Paukov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

In this paper, I demonstrate the transcultural dialogue which is happening on the basis of partial problems of both russian and non-russian art. This dialogue happens in a historic and a „spatial“ context, which, as a phenomenon, should correspond to the future of geocultural hyperthinking. A huge tradition of antique culture, together with apolonian clarity, has found its own continuation in older classical and modern russian art. The holy trinity of Andrej Rublov and the Mason by the futurist D. Rurljuk serve as a great example. In the movie „Blowup“, by Michelangelo Antonioni, the various connotations of the protagonist’s name – Thomas- have been mostly left ignored. There isa plethora of options to choose from – ranging from Thomas Aquinas up to associations with the biblical figure of the doubting Thomas. Furthermore, through paying my respects via photography to an important art critic – Tomas Strauss– I took upon myself to make use of this paper to try and ponder the nature of photography per se, in the context of its various types and its place within the art genres. Humans are able to perceive an exemplar stability, or photographic affinity, of the world, as we can conclude from the metaphor: „Humans are beings in between God and a frog“. Frogs can not react to static impulses, only humans can. A cinematograph, as a technical principle, appeared only after the invention of photography, but as an innate way of seeing the world predates photography by ages.

Civilization that will survive

Author(s): Ladislav Bučko / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The article shows the situation of the Catholic Church in today’s united socialist Vietnam. The author, a Slovak misiologist, does this on the basis of the experiment of life at the monastery of Vincentian brothers in Ho Chi Minh City as well as through small research. This qualitative research was carried out by means of in-depth interviews with a research sample of participants, which consisted of priests from the missionary society of St. Vincent de Paul and a Franciscan missionary from South Korea. The results are surprising and show that the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam and the unification of the country under communist rule was not a tragedy for the Catholic Church but, on the contrary, this situation helped her to consolidate inwardly and strengthen its mission.

Провеждане на фотоконкурси и конкурси за постери в Националния военен университет „Васил Левски“ и добрата съвместна работа с други университети и широк кръг училища

Author(s): Nikolay Dolchinkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

These students’ competitions were realized in the Vasil Levski National Military University – Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria). They appear to be successful tools for enhancing the interest of students to physics in collaboration with people from other universities and secondary schools.

Следи от критско и венецианско влияние в историята на Бачковския манастир

Author(s): Teodor Peev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 16/2018

Bachkovo monastery is a subject of research interests over the years of a number of Bulgarian and foreign scientists. A part of paintings in the parvis of the main church was restored in May 2016. We have better opportunities for precise observations in frescoes because of that. This was one of the most important occasions for writing this material. Un¬known and very qualified painter signed the walls with images of almost unknown Saints. There are items related to Crete and Venice in the monastery museum collection in the same time. There is a church and chapel devoted to the most respected Cretan icon in the town of Asenovgrad, etc. All these facts lead us to the idea of the existence of links between the Bachkovo monastery and the island Crete, whose residents have long time been under Venetian domination.

Negative Testimonials. Photographic Representation of Holocaust Memory

Author(s): Adam Mazur / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Landscapes of Postmemory

Author(s): Aleksandra Szczepan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The article discusses postmemory landscapes, understood both as a spatial disposition of Eastern and Central Europe, and their cultural – especially photographic, filmic, and literary – representations. The author shows that those landscapes allow to reconsider two crucial problems in the light of memory and trauma studies: i.e. spatial dimension of remembering and the meaning of site/landscape for the experience of postmemory, as well as the reinterpretation of the archive of visual clichés related to the representation of space, which is marked by historical trauma.

The Treasure from the Golyama Brestnitsa Village and the Relation: Sacred Object – Rite – Faith

Author(s): Valeria Fol / Language(s): English Issue: 22/2015

The treasure from the Golyama Brestnitsa village in North-Central Bulgaria consists of one cylindrical vessel and five dippers with total weight of 1.650 kg highest grade silver. The dippers are not identical in size and ornamentation. An inscription is incised on the bowl and on one of the dippers, which reads: Κυριω Ηρωι Πυρουμηρουλα Φλ(αβιος) Μεστριανος β(ενε)φ(ικιαριος) ευχαριστηριον (“To master Heros Purumerulas from Flavius Mestrianos beneficiarius, as a sign of gratitude”). The prevalent opinion in the literature is in favour of the meaning “big/ brilliant fire” for the epithet Πυρουμηρουλας, and for the name of the beneficiarius Μεστριανος – that it is a Latinised Thracian name. The making of the vessels is dated to the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd century, and its burying is associated with the barbarian incursions and more specifically with the late 3rd century. The paper interprets for the first time the treasure and the inscription from a functional and a ritual point of view in the context of the Romanisation to the north of the Balkan Range. Inscriptions with the epithet Πυρ(ου)μηρουλας, Pirmerulas occur to the south of the Balkan Range and along the Struma valley. An assumption is given in the paper that the donor of the treasure with a dedication to a god-horseman (and hunter) with fiery-solar characteristics may originate from these regions. Another possibility is the epithet to have been carried to the north by Thracians who settled in the region after their military service. The treasure from Golyama Brestnitsa supports the theory that two types of transformations took place during the first two centuries of the first millennium AD between the Balkan Range and the Danube as a result of the inclusion of the Thracian lands within the Roman Empire, namely: visible, formal Romanisation of urban and communication infrastructure and the emergence of multicultural enclaves, name system and formation of a shared trade space, and actual Romanisation – of the lifestyle, faith and ritual.

Ролята на фотографията. Бурел век по-късно

Author(s): Petya B. Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

In the early 20th century, the Bulgarian anthropogeographer Krum Dronchilov, Ph.D. conducted field research in the 23 villages located near the road between Dragoman and Tran. His publication “Burel. Anthropogeographic Studies” is at the root of a second research which I conducted in 2017 – 2018 – “Burel a Century Later: Changes in the Region (a Comparison with an Anthropogeographic Research of 1923)”. The second research as well as this article mark the main changes registered in the region and my observations regarding the positions of researcher and respondents in the 21st century. In order to present the second research in a modern, efficient and intriguing way, the use of audio and visual methods in collecting and presenting the material should be considered a necessary element. The expectations related to the audio-visual established in the 21st century lead to changes in the structures and conceptualization of the scientific texts. In unison with this thesis, the selection of Burel’s photographs in the article is not a mere supplement but a foundation upon which I build my comments.

Единайсет минути „бездеятелен“ отдих на ден

Author(s): Katerina Gadjeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The free time was one of the most important results of the political and economic changes in Bulgaria during the 1960s; it was a peculiar “reward“ for the people who had put all their strength in the hard and wearisome work typical of the previous decade. But although it was presented as “free“, the time people had after the working day or working week was not free of ideological control at all; just the opposite, there were directives, plans and norms for it as well. According to them, only the activities orientated to the physical, intellectual, spiritual and social development of the character were considered “free time“. The article interprets photographs published in some of the popular periodicals in Bulgaria by means of which ideology constructed the idea of a correct organization of the free time of the citizens of socialistBulgaria in the 1960s. The article focuses not on the documentary but on artistic images and attempts to trace the process of transformation of certain everyday practices into beautiful views “advertising“ the ideologically legitimate activities.

Европейската комисия за Източна Румелия: Един непознат фотодокумент в архивите на The Getty Research Institute

Author(s): Krasimir Krumov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

This paper presents an unknown photograph from the time immediately after the Liberation of Bulgaria. It depicts a collective portrait of the members of the European Commission for the organization of Eastern Roumelia. The photo document is created outside a studio in a natural environment and could be defined as one of the early examples of reportage photography on socio-political affairs that took place on the Bulgarian lands.

Телевизионният дискурс в България: постмодерно, модерно, носталгия

Author(s): Orlin Spassov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The text highlights two main ways in which the television discourse in Bulgaria has unfolded in recent years. The first one is connected with postmodernism, but now it looks retro. The second is the result of the influence of social media and networks on television (digital modern-ism). The interweaving and complementarity between these two main types of television discourse produces effects of nostalgia, thus contributing to the maintenance of conservative myths and status quo.