The decorative heritage of Bizere abbey: fragments of the opus sectile

Author(s): Ileana Burnichioiu / Language(s): English Issue: Special/2015

The Bizere monastery gradually fell into ruin during the sixteenth century and the site became a treasure hunting ground and a quarry for construction material. Consequently, all that was left for scholarship was fragmentary, difficult to patch together, and dependent on the archaeological investigations. This type of research first began in 1981 and carried on between 2001 and 2009, and in 2014, retrieved a notable quantity of mosaic, sculpture, and fresco fragments. This paper is dealing specifically with isolated opus sectile fragments. It analyzes the variety of materials and shapes, technical aspects, and tries to identify some elements of the original design. This study is connected to articles dedicated to mosaics discovered in situ at Bizere as well as to the archaeometric analysis of mosaic tesserae in this volume.

Мотив хвороби в історії літератури і культури посттоталітарних країн Центрально-Східної Європи

Author(s): Mariya Yankova / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 9/2021

The article is dedicated to the issues considered during the international conference “The motive of the disease in the history of literature and culture of post-totalitarian states of Central and Eastern Europe”, which took place on November 6, 2020. The main topics of the speakers were focused on the disease as a weakness in the literature, the trauma of loss, the theme of illness and healing in world literature from its beginning to the present, including the periods of Kyiv Rus, Renaissance, Baroque and Modernism and the traumatic experience in the narratives of the Holodomor, Ukrainian women’s prose and the ability of Ukrainian sacred and decorative, as well as modern women’s art to visualize the disease and help artists overcome their injuries.

Психологическа структура на изобразителната дейност и ролята на познавателните психични процеси като основен елемент на детското творчество

Author(s): Zhivka I. Aneshteva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The report addresses the issues of the psychological structure of visual activities which is at the origin of defining the developmental stages of the visual activities and it‘s correct methodological guidance of preschool age. Emphasis is given to the development of specifical for preschool age cognitive mental processes, the mechanism of their formation and manifestation in the visual creative activities.

Арт-терапевтични възможности на изобразителната дейност при деца с аутизъм

Author(s): Sezel S. Ferad / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Today, in practice, we increasingly meet children with autism. One way to integrate them, as far as possible, into their environment is through art. Using art as an art-therapeutic approach, we try to support the development of the child's personal potential.

MITYCZNE DZIEJE STEFANA WIELKIEGO W KONTEKŚCIE WIERZEŃ POTOCZNYCH I IKONOGRAFII MALOWANYCH CERKWI NA BUKOWINIE CZĘŚĆ 1 - W STRONĘ RZYMU

Author(s): Ewa Kocój / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2004

Stefan Wielki zajmuje (1457-1504) w rumuńskiej świadomości religijnej i narodowej miejsce wyjątkowe. Niektóre źródła historyczne i prace teologiczne przedstawiają go jako jednego z najwybitniejszych rumuńskich władców, a formuły słowne używane w tych pracach nasuwają myśl, iż cześć oddawana Stefanowi, bliska jest czci oddawanej samemu Bogu.

Opowiedzieć o katastrofie. Twórcy wobec wojny

Author(s): Piotr Kosiewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 688/2022

Ukraińskie artystki i artyści bardzo wiele powiedzieli o wojnie rozpoczętej przez Rosję w 2014 r. Ich prace zapowiadały nieuchronną katastrofę. Ich dzieła były silnie obecne nie tylko w ukraińskim, ale też międzynarodowym obiegu artystycznym. Dlaczego widziano te prace, lecz w rzeczywistości ich nie zobaczono?

Ilūkstes jezuītu klosteris. Būvvēsture un arhitektūra

Author(s): Ilmārs Dirveiks / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

Today Ilūkste resembles a rather remote town for many. It was mentioned as a small village in the mid-16th century. Gradual development began here after the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was founded. Old Believers, Lutherans and Catholics built their churches there. Support for Jesuits by the landowning Zyberg family gradually made Ilūkste one of the Duchy’s main Catholic centres. St. Ursula’s Catholic Church built in the mid-18th century was the largest Catholic Church in the Duchy; together with the college complex it equalled the Aglona religious and educational centre on the right bank of the River Daugava. The imposing church vanished from the Ilūkste landscape in the historical turmoil of the 20th century. The church was blown up during the First World War and its stone remains were fully removed as late as 1956. After the Second World War, the former monastery building increasingly faded into oblivion. Although the history of Ilūkste Jesuit college and St. Ursula’s Church has been much studied already, providing a good, professional theoretical basis, research of former monastery buildings was not carried out before autumn 2021. Thus the opportunity arose to gather valuable new information about this important object in Latvia’s cultural history. Ilūkste Jesuit monastery (college) building and the so-called “side building” are parts of the largest Jesuit residence in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. The residence once included St. Ursula’s Church, the nearby monastery and (school?) building and to the south, several outbuildings and a garden (currently with only approximately known boundaries). In the monastery’s former inner courtyard and a precisely undefined territory there has been a cemetery since at least the 17th century. Today the Jesuit college includes two objects – the monastery building and the “side building”. The monastery building was built in two stages. The south block was built in 1747–1748, the east block – in 1753 while the interior was completely finished only in 1757. However, the monastery remains historically incomplete, as the planned west block was never built. The monastery building has fully retained its initial layout with later additions, not destructive enough to affect the original significantly. Only the structure connecting the building to the church was lost. Small changes to the volume were brought by the relatively flat roof built in 1919–1920. The monastery building has vaulting on all floors. During the First World War, about one third of all vaulting in the east block was lost and replaced with flat wooden constructions. Vaulting, diverse wall niches, large window openings, corridors and a staircase form the highly authentic 18th century Jesuit monastery interiors. The function of the basement with places for heating (?) devices and ventilation ducts in the walls has yet to be fully studied. The complex constructive solutions of the monastery building show high-level Jesuit architecture created by experienced executors. Although the Ilūkste monastery building is smaller than the neighbouring Daugavpils college, the designers’ and masons’ skills and implementation are totally comparable. The monastery building’s façades remained unplastered for a long time. Decorative plastering was likely applied to the south façade on the first-floor level as late as the 19th century. Conversely, original plastering has survived in almost all interiors. No evidence has been found yet about artistically valuable wall and ceiling décor. A simple 19th century decorative painting system was uncovered, consisting of a dark socle part and stencilling with roller brush from the first half of the 20th century. Two vaulted, mid-18th century south-block cell plafonds are among the most artistically significant finish examples rarely preserved in Latvia. The building south of the monastery initially had two storeys and a monastery-side entrance. Façades have decorative lesenes (pilaster strips) with specially elaborated, moulded bases. The spatial composition of this “side building” is unusual in Latvia’s architectural context. There were two ground-floor premises at first. The larger west room had a wooden covering, three spacious wall niches and a window in the outer wall. The south side had a narrow, long, barrel-vaulted premise with two window openings, one in the east wall, and another in the north end facing the monastery. Truly surprising is the first-floor layout with one large, barrel-vaulted room. The east and west end walls had one window each. Stairs to the attic were built on the south side in the middle of the vault. The choice of such a covering for the large premise remains unexplained but it could be related to its special function. The school and theatre building played quite an important large role for the residence. Therefore, a lasting stone house built of bricks made at the new kiln would be logical. Hypothetically, the present building beside the monastery fits this function; it proved useful in 1748 when the wooden church burned down and a temporary chapel was arranged in the “theatre house”. Visual features, even without further studies, tell every practicing building specialist that they date back at least to the 18th century. If the experienced researcher of Jesuit architecture Jerzy Paszenda had visited Ilūkste in person, the “side building” would surely have caught his attention. The “side building” was constructed as a part of the new monastery’s envisioned stone complex. The building was architecturally completed in the 18th century with relief décor on its plastered façades. Analysing its spatial structure and archival information, up to now only theoretical speculations about its function are possible. The “side building” looks more like a school than a dormitory with separate sleeping quarters for disciples. The spatial structures of the old and the new building are similar, as the old school building had ground-floor classrooms and one large room upstairs – a theatre hall. The “side building” today reveals an analogous structure. Although the similarity is just formal, the aforementioned arguments allow the hypothesis that the “side building” of Ilūkste monastery was built in 1730 as a school and possibly also a theatre. It is typologically unique in the architecture of Latvia and the oldest building in present-day Ilūkste. Even if both stone buildings of Ilūkste monastery have suffered much during wars and were rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century, their initial spatial structure and much of original substance has survived. Considering the significance of this place in Latvia’s cultural history and the unique building typology, the former Ilūkste Jesuit college ensemble is certainly an outstanding monument of architecture and history whose true values have yet to be revealed.

Arhitekta Vladimira Šervinska pareizticīgo dievnami

Author(s): Katriona Luīze Rožlapa / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The 1920s and 30s are known by an unprecedented construction boom of Orthodox churches in Latvia’s history of art and architecture. This phenomenon was fostered by the Synod of the Latvian Orthodox Church as well as by its chief architect Vladimir Scherwinsky and his professional output. Not all newly built Orthodox churches were related to the Synod. In most cases, these were direct commissions from Vladimir Scherwinsky. Architect Vladimir Scherwinsky came from a dynasty of architects. His father Max Scherwinsky was the Director of Riga Trade School; Riga’s 700th Jubilee Exhibition that he curated left a deep impression on Vladimir’s interest in historical architecture and its potential uses. His maternal grandfather, Otto Jakob Simonson, brought up the young Vladimir after Max’s sudden death. The Dresden-born architect Simonson who was of Jewish origin stayed in Tbilisi for the most part of his professional career, serving as the city’s chief architect, until his move to Riga because of financial strains. Already during his student years at Eižens Laube’s workshop at the Architecture Faculty of Riga Polytechnic Institute, Vladimir Scherwinsky showed a strong interest in historical styles of architecture. Historical architecture of the Russian Empire and specifics of the Northern Russian wooden architecture proved especially attractive.After completing his studies, Vladimir Scherwinsky, together with his friend and brother-in-law, engineer Mikhail Krivoshapkin, founded his architectural office at 9 Šķūņu Street. They both constructed a large number of residential buildings, apartment houses and public buildings. Having noted Vladimir Scherwinsky’s talent and working capabilities, in 1924, the Archbishop of the Latvian Orthodox Church Jānis Pommers, invited him to become the chief architect of the Synod. While in this office, Scherwinsky was responsible for the technical oversight of churches as well as research and building new churches. The Synod sent the architect on missions to visit Orthodox congregations in neighbouring countries; thus he got to know not only various ethnographic customs but also the building traditions of Orthodox churches. Scherwinsky paid particular attention to the building aspects of wooden churches, their decorative qualities, principles and materiality. He transferred part of these discoveries to the artistic and decorative forms of his own architectural creativity.Architect Vladimir Scherwinsky’s signature style emerged from influences as well as his individual and professional interests. He developed his individual style based on Historicist impulses alongside the artistic principles and materiality of Northern Russian wooden architecture. Several Northern Russian elements were taken over directly into Scherwinsky’s designs, such as walls built of horizontal logs, octagonal bell towers and decorative elements. However, regardless of specific inspirational sources, the architect diversified his forms in intricate ways, discovering his own architectural language. His designs complied with the developed building traditions of Orthodox churches. In his formal solutions, Scherwinsky modernised the aesthetics of Northern Russian wooden architecture, approximating it to the aspects of the so-called Russian Revival style. At the same time, constructive solutions were also appropriated from the Muscovite Baroque and tented churches. Scherwinsky modified the tented church model and used it in a limited manner for the nave roof construction, not copying the example directly. The architect remains ascetic in his artistic language, using only a few decorative elements in his churches. In most cases, there are filigree, sawn barge-boards and windows surrounded with artistically subdued, sculptural woodcarvings. Scherwinsky repeatedly utilised the principles of twisted columns in the entrance passage and nave. However, similarly to Northern Russia’s practice of wooden architecture, Scherwinsky’s designs too put more emphasis on architectonic structure than on decorative principles. The complexity of ideas was implemented with the help of innovative building principles. Vladimir Scherwinsky has created a new, innovative mode of stylistics and construction of Orthodox churches in Latvia’s history of architecture. He stands out in the architectural scene with immense capacity for work, designing over twenty Orthodox churches in less than twenty years, also transferring less-familiar architecture and sources of inspiration to Latvia’s architectural environment. Vladimir Scherwinsky is an extraordinary and so far underrated instance in Latvia’s art history.

"Dubultā koda" pazīmes ortodoksālā socreālisma posma tēlotājā mākslā Latvijā

Author(s): Eduards Kļaviņš / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The phases of orthodox Socialist Realism art in Latvia (1940 –1941, 1945–1956) are already researched and interpreted in many publications of Latvian art historians (Ilze Konstante, Stella Pelše, Elita Ansone, Sergejs Kruks, et al.). They reveal the robust suppression of local art life by the totalitarian regime during the Soviet occupation, the force of the ideological pressure on artists and describe the considerable body of artworks named Socialist Realism. Tracing the process, an impression of irresistible dominance of this production could arise. Nevertheless, in order to be more realistic, some hidden deviations from the official art policy and canonic requirements of Socialist Realism should be indicated. They emerged already during the first year of Soviet rule as a difference between published conformity and presented artworks, as a specific duality of iconography and its connotations or as a dichotomy between required subject matter and formal style. The double codes of art life of Latvia continued after the Second World War, when artists had to adapt themselves once more to the cultural policies of the totalitarian state. In most cases the reason for it was quite pragmatic because the state institutions were the main art consumers. The prescribed themes for art production were given together with the dogma of Socialist Realism and examples to be followed. For all that, in the course of the first post-war years artists managed to escape in the realm of politically neutral genres and images; landscapes dominated exhibitions, the legitimate and desirable compositions with images of the so-called working people (labourers, farmers) were made according to the tradition of the 1930s without unquestionable features of Soviet life (paintings of Eduards Kalniņš, Ārijs Skride, Jānis Liepiņš, Ģederts Eliass). The same could be said about some graduation works of the Latvian Art Academy of the time. A historical scene “The Kauguri Rebellions” (1945, Riga, Latvian National Museum of Art, further LNMA), painted by the former prominent modernist Oto Skulme, was an ideologically required depiction of the class struggle; on the other hand, it could be read as an anticipation of the national liberation. The picturesque style of the work was far from mimetic Socialist Realism. Versions of “Entangled” (all in the LNMA) modelled by the leading sculptor Teodors Zaļkalns could tell us about artist’s dependence on the changing political powers. The ideological pressure on Latvian art increased from 1949 until the middle of the 1950s; the historical background contains brutal repression, deportations and includes individual stories of deported artists. The result of the growing engagement and conformity – many works of Latvian orthodox Socialist Realism with all the necessary elements of the current policy. The largest exhibitions of 1949 and 1950 were full of artefacts with demanded subjects; painted and sculpted images of the dictator Stalin were inevitable. The most notable examples (the works of Oto Skulme, Arnolds Pankoks, Ojārs Ābols, Semjons Gelbergs, Aleksandra Briede, Jānis Briedis and others) were already examined in Soviet times and in recent publications. Still, the hidden double-coded art life was not totally exhausted. Thematic escapism gradually recovered and already in 1953 landscapes dominated the representative exhibition of Latvian creative artists in Riga once more. In 1954 the official art critic Arturs Lapiņš “unmasked” painters who worked with “two easels” – one for commissioned Socialist Realism works and the other for individual formalism. The dichotomy of subject and form was also preserved. Some artists from the older generation (the aforementioned Eliass and Zaļkalns, graphic artist Pēteris Upītis, et al.) continued to produce works repeating their pre-Soviet style and supplying them with titles typical for Socialist Realism. The youngest generation (students of the Art Academy) acquired another double-coded concept. Painters, who composed conventional scenes with farmers’ work or with happy children, had to create the obligatory optimistic mood not only by postures and facial expressions but also by sunlight effects. Therefore, volumes were modelled using colours dependent on the light of plein air. The role of brushwork increased. Sometimes elementary narratives were reduced to the simple fixation of depicted figures and their dynamics. This development towards Impressionism resulted in a mutation of Socialist Realism and could be called “Sots Impressionism”. Historical Impressionism was rejected by the authorities of the orthodox Socialist Realism, nevertheless, its elements were integrated into some individual versions of the style, including the achievements of some leading Soviet representatives of it (Yuri Pimenov, Arkady Plastov, Tatyana Yablonskaya). The overall phenomenon has recently become a subject for art historians; Vern Swanson praised “Soviet Impressionism” in his monographs of 2001 and 2007, Eha Komissarov staged an exhibition of “Stalinist Impressionism” in Estonian art (Tallin, 2016). In Latvia two graduation works of Art Academy students Bruno Celmiņš and Zigurds Kampars are good examples of “Sots Impressionism” (both 1954, LNMA), the best was an urban plein air scene “At a Book Table” (1955, Latvian Art Academy) by Gunārs Cīlītis. The trend continued in the next years (notable the paintings of Edgars Iltners, Rita Valnere, et al.) during the so-called political “thaw” and led to further mutations of local Socialist Realism.

Ieskats Aivara Gulbja radošajā darbībā. Monumentālās un monumentāli dekoratīvās skulptūras

Author(s): Laila Bremša / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The article deals with monumental and decorative compositions by the Latvian sculptor Aivars Gulbis (b. 1933). The artist developed a modernist-inspired style in monumental and small-scale sculpture. After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, he mainly created exhibition sculptures influenced by geometrical modernism. Gulbis was also the long-standing chair of the Sculpture Section of the Latvian Artists’ Union and a board member, fostering the organisation of international exhibitions in the Soviet period. Gulbis was born in Lēdurga into a teacher’s and farmer’s family. Wartime difficulties in his childhood and adolescence created a great passion for education and work. As most of Latvia’s population at that time, he too had to adapt to the rules introduced by the Soviet occupation. After his primary education, Gulbis attended the Riga Secondary School of Applied Arts (now the Riga School of Design and Art), learning good metalworking skills. Metal (bronze, aluminium, copper, iron) is his main material. Afterwards he studied in the Sculpture Department of the State Art Academy (now the Art Academy of Latvia) and was taught by Teodors Zaļkalns, Emīls Melderis and Kārlis Zemdega. Gulbis’ diploma work – a composition with mother and child – was supervised by Zemdega. However, Zemdega’s Neo-Classicist leanings did not influence Gulbis; much more relevant were the photographs of Karl Milles’ (1875–1955) sculptures shown by Zemdega. They inspired Gulbis to think about movement in sculpture. Gulbis became a very hard-working individual immersed in sculpture but he is also a social person and a family man. Together with his wife Agija Sūna, they brought up their three children to become artists as well. At the beginning of his career, Gulbis and his course mate Laimonis Blumbergs completed the granite monument to the poet Rainis in Communards’ Square (1965, now Esplanāde) left unfinished by Zemdega. Gulbis’ first independent composition – a small sunken-relief monument commemorating revolutions in Valka (1963) – was also realised in granite. This monument started his “severe style” language seen in some exhibition works of the time. Later the artist chose the stylised language of geometrical modernist forms, seen in the images of three muses (Comedy, Tragedy and Music) in the foyer of the Russian Drama Theatre (1967, architect Juris Monvīds Skalbergs). After the theatre restoration, the sculptures were kept at the sculptor’s home for a while but have now been moved to the façade of the Ragana People’s House. They continue to impress with their elegance and dynamism. The sculptor wanted to work with large sculptural forms and in 1965 created the clay composition “Recaptured Land”. The sculpture was expressive for those times; however, the ensuing criticism as well as the lack of commission led to the sculptor dismantling his own work. In 1969, Gulbis together with sculptors Jānis Karlovs and Juris Mauriņš organised an exhibition at the Artists’ House where Gulbis exhibited an innovative composition for the time titled “Perpetuum mobile”. It was actually the first kinetic sculpture, also painted red. The exhibition was harshly criticised by sculptors and by some art historians (Karlovs was rebuked most severely). Due to ideological reasons, Ļevs Bukovskis, the then Chair of the Artists’ Union, decided to open the exhibition only to Artists’ Union members for a few days. According to his own words, this decision was very traumatic for Gulbis. Afterwards Gulbis created several decorative compositions that add much to this field – the reliefs “Man” and “Woman” (1969, façade of 44 Pērnavas Street in Riga, forged copper, architect Juris Monvīds Skalbergs), the sculpture “Apple” (1989, façade of Jūrmala Civil Registry office, bronze) and a sculpture in the round “Tree of Life” (1983, outdoor pool décor of Riga Gaiļezers (Austrumu) Hospital, forged copper). The motif of flight is realised in the composition “Muse of Revolution” (1971, the so-called Government Square in the Rainis Cemetery, forged copper, architect Ivars Strautmanis). This is part of a memorial ensemble (allegorical images from travertine by Kārlis Baumanis). The flying female figure perpendicular to the stone pillar was possibly inspired by François Rude’s (1784–1855) composition “La Marseillaise” (1836). From this work on, Gulbis developed his sculptural interests towards Romanticism, capturing movement in a three-dimensional volume. Gulbis’ most important monumental work, also the largest and most original grave monument in Soviet-period sculpture, is installed in the Forest Cemetery in Riga, dedicated to writer and Soviet state official Vilis Lācis. He was a popular writer then while in the 21st century his reputation has become controversial. Sometimes he is seen as a collaborator and subsequently, the gravesite and the monument have been neglected. Gulbis and the architect Skalbergs won two rounds of the competition but the idea emerged spontaneously, involving a male nude in modernised forms against a plastic, vital, wave-like sculptural form. The monument’s texture is rich in lights and shades; it has a dynamic silhouette and a novel solution in the context of Latvian grave monument traditions. Wanting to test his ability and demonstrate his talent in large-size monumental sculpture, Gulbis took part in the 1977 competition for the Riga Victory Monument. It received 33 applications in total. The creative team also included the sculptor Ļevs Bukovskis, architects Ermens Bāliņš, Edvīns Vecumnieks, Viktors Zilgalvis and the artist Aleksandrs Bugajevs. The tripartite composition (opened in 1985) was formally eclectic. Gulbis created a 10 m high bronze image of Mother Homeland and child meeting the Red Army soldiers. The child’s figure was later removed due to various reasons, changing the image’s meaning to some degree. Gulbis made a very attractive and sculpturally powerful drapery, creating an expressive silhouette and spatial complexity. Since the restoration of Latvia’s independence, the Victory Monument has become a confrontational site where the society’s diverging narratives of war memories collide, Latvians seeing it as a glorification of the occupying army. After Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2022, the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia voted to dismantle the Victory Monument.Aivars Gulbis developed his talent under Soviet rule, choosing decorative sculpture as a greater opportunity to work with modernised forms and solve the themes of space and movement. Agreeing to create an ideological monument, he had to encounter rivalry, censorship and also critical attitudes of the public later. The Romanticist aspect of Gulbis’ art requires a deeper study in the artistic context of the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Jauns pētījums par Latvijas klasisko modernistu

Author(s): Stella Pelše / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The book review explores the substantial volume - album and collection of articles ("Niklāvs Strunke", Riga: Neputns, 2021) - dedicated to the versatile Latvian artist and art theoretician Niklāvs Strunke (1894-1966). Aija Brasliņa deals with the artist's biography, aesthetic views and painting, Valdis Villerušs - with his book design while Edīte Tišheizere examines his contribution to stage design and Ilze Martinsone - to various fields of applied arts.

Daudzveidīgais "brīnumdaris" Sergejs Antonovs mazākumtautību mākslas dzīves skatījumā

Author(s): Karīna Horsta / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The book review deals with the publication co-authored by Jānis Lejnieks and Ludmila Pestova about the Russian architect, painter and stage designer Sergei Antonov (1884-1956) working in Latvia ("Sergejs Antonovs", Riga: Neputns, 2021).

Zīmējuma zintinieks un raksta rotnieks

Author(s): Sanita Oše / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 26/2022

The book review explores the publication dedicated to the versatile Latvian artist and art critic Jūlijs Madernieks (1870-1955) ("Madernieka stils: Rakstu krājums = The Style of Madernieks: Collected Articles", Riga: LNMM BMDM, 2021). He was active in applied arts, designed ornaments, typefaces, interior objects, etc., also being an active critic and art teacher.

EUROPEANNESS – A NOSTALGIC OBJECT OF SCRUTINY AT THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

Author(s): Janina Falkowska / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2021

The idea of Europeanness and European identity rather than the national identity gains in relevance in view of the symbolic reorganization of the geographic spaces. Moreover, the national identity issues have somewhat lost importance in view of the global hazard of the COVID pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to debate the concept of Europeanness and to express an ambivalent position on this notion. Taking into consideration the most recent accomplishments of cultural theory I would like to demonstrate that the so-called European identity is a nostalgic object recalled to reminisce about the time when globalization and global threats did not exist at the scale comparable to the present. Or, the knowledge about them was patchy due to the undeveloped internet communication. Taking into consideration the explanations of Arjun Appadurai and Svetlana Boym, I will deconstruct the notion of Europeanness in view of a broad idea of nostalgia which according to Boym interprets the past as illusory and non-existent.

Punkty wyjścia. Z Ewą Zarzycką o sztuce performansu, rysunkach i tekstach w transmedialnym archiwum rozmawiają Marta Baron-Milian i Aleksander Wójtowicz

Author(s): Ewa Zarzycka,Marta Baron-Milian,Aleksander Wójtowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1 (19)/2022

Елисавета Мусакова. Корпус на украсените славянски средновековни ръкописи в Националната библиотека „Св. св. Кирил и Методий“. X/ХI – ХІV в. Том I. Част I: Псалтири, Евангелия, Апостоли

Author(s): Vassya Velinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 44/2022

Filling the void: Urban murals and national identity in Russia and Ukraine after 2010

Author(s): Emma Louise Leahy / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Amidst a systemic transformation, existing structures of individual and collective identification often become discredited. After the chaotic experience of transition, a period of normalisation generally follows, accompanied by a concerted exercise of identity rebuilding. Processes of identity reconstruction tend to be heavily influenced by national elites and retransmitted via symbolic interventions in the public space. Such a period of post-transition identity-building has been underway in Ukraine and Russia since 2010, gradually replacing the informality of the post-Soviet condition of the 1990s and 2000s. This article investigates the extent to which Russian and Ukrainian narratives of national identity have diverged, and are continuing to diverge, from the common trunk of a constructed (post-)Soviet identity. Should these identity-building processes be considered as decentralised, or as the product of top-down management by public authorities? I use as observations urban murals created in central districts of Kyiv and Moscow after 2010, comparatively evaluating them in terms of symbolic content and institutional context. My data source is an index of murals of my own compilation. I hope to have demonstrated that differences between the two capitals are evident in terms of the symbolic content of murals, their compositional design, and the choice of heroic-inspirational figures depicted. These differences correlate with divergent official discourses of national identity in the two countries. The street art booms in Kyiv and Moscow are considered as parallel campaigns of state-supported neo-muralism, occurring amidst militarised identitarian conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

eShadow+: Mixed Reality Storytelling Inspired by Traditional Shadow Theatre

Author(s): Nektarios Moumoutzis,Marios Christoulakis,Chara Xanthaki,Nikos Pappas,Yiannis Maragkoudakis,Stavros Christodoulakis,Desislava Paneva-Marinova / Language(s): English Issue: XII/2022

eShadow is a digital storytelling platform inspired by traditional Shadow Theatre. It enables the creation of digital stories within a project-based ap-proach that may start from scenario development and include the creation of digital puppets and sceneries, the set-up and recording of story scenes and the final assembly of a digital story. This paper presents details about eShad-ow architecture, features and how its use has been enhanced, employing the PerFECt framework, to combine it with immersive technologies such as pro-jection mapping, to create mixed reality installations that offer rich learning experiences to participants in informal learning settings. Two installations are described and compared. The evaluation results demonstrate the effective-ness of the approach towards engaging learning experiences that combine mixed reality approaches with arts such as black light theatre.

Digital Imaging Techniques in Archaeometry: The Case of an Ancient Crucifixion Icon

Author(s): Magdelena Stoyanova,Diego C. Stoyanov,Lilia Pavlova / Language(s): English Issue: XII/2022

An ancient Crucifixion icon has been studied using imaging techniques integrated with appropriated visualizations. Relevant parameters and suitable algorithms have been selected in a proper sequence to segment the studied images into meaningful elements functional to the attribution of the icon through analysis of the employed materials and techniques. The cross-referencing of the results allowed to identify three main phases in the realization of the painting, to describe their extension, character and determine the possible authors as: Cretan/Ionian painters, '500-' 600 (1st phase); Hristofor Žefarović, Western Balkans or Vienna, 1730-1753 (2nd phase); Placido Fabris / Michelangelo Barbini, Venice, mid 19th c. (3rd phase).

Cañones del Elector de Sajonia en la plaza fuerte de Rosas (siglos XVI-XVII): El Barzoque y los 36 libras

Author(s): Pablo de la Fuente de Pablo / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 4/2022

This article identifies three pieces of artillery, especially the Barzoque that served in defence of the fortress of Rosas (Spain) during the 16th and 17th centuries. The cannons are part of the spoils of war that Spanish imperial troops took from the protestant princes following the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League at the battle of Mühlberg in 1547. This article is based mainly on primary sources, especially two documents found in the General Archive of Simancas and the unpublished treatise of Captain Diego de Prado y Tovar, who saw the cannons on his visit to Rosas and whose drawings give a clear idea of the Barzoque’s mouldings.