We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article seeks to address the description and analysis of a complexly constructed object such as an art installation. Different types of installations are explored, as they are becoming more and more popular in contemporary art. The methods used were chosen so that to be adequate to the objects under consideration. Art installations being complex works, the methods of classical art studies faced certain difficulties in their description and analysis, and mainly in revealing and explaining the mechanisms behind the functioning of different installations. Drawing lessons from those analyses, contemporary art studies had to expand and summarise their categories and concepts so that to be able to go from a descriptive and explanatory model to a prognostic one in the analysis of the contemporary “hybrid fruits” of the art of imagery.
More...
The article brings together all known for the time being works by the Athonite icon-painter Nicephorus from Karpenissi, made in the Bulgarian lands. It is argued that his icons spread across this country through the agency of the monasteries of Zographou and Chilandari on Mt Athos rather than being commissioned to him. In this sense, the role is underscored not only of the institution of taxidiotes, but also of the monasteries as such for Bulgarian places that needed Athonite icons at the turn of the nineteenth century commissioned those directly to the monasteries rather than contacting the Athonite painters. The choice of a particular painter in each case was left to the discretion of the two monasteries, which acted as the gobetween in the negotiations between the church donors and the iconpainters. Several examples are given of incorrect attributions of works made by Nicephorus, which were until now ascribed to the Samokovian painter Hristo Dimitrov. These are the icons at the Metropolitan Church, Samokov (1793); the Church of the Holy Trinity, Ruse (1807–1808) and some of those at the Church of the Assumption in Pazardjik (1815). Along with the new attributions, a critical evaluation is made of the information about Hristo Dimitrov’s training on Mt Athos and some information about the painters of the School of Samokov, based rather on legends, though accepted as science facts in Bulgarian literature.
More...
Windows in the parish church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Mszanka near Gorlice, which supplements the architecture of the church built in 1938–1940 following the design of Edward Okoń, an architect from Tarnów, comprises 12 stained glass: two figural in the chancel, eight geometrical with medallions in the nave and transept, and two with monograms on both sides of the main entrance. Although plain in the artistic sense, and in the case of the figural ones – mediocre, these stained glasses successfully complement the bright and orderly interior of the parish church. The inscriptions on two panels and existing archival sources inform us that the windows were created in 1938 in the Kraków workshop of Maksymilian Romańczyk. The archival documents describe the entire investment process leading to their creation and their repair which was necessary due to their deficient construction. This task was undertaken in 1949 by the renowned Kraków Stained Glass Company S. G. Żeleński, which is also described in detail in the historical records. Stained glass and primarily the archival materials preserved in Mszanka are excellent sources of many valuable details on stained glass workmanship in Poland in the second quarter of the 20th century, the division of tasks within stained glass workshops, the involvement of the clients, and on projects that the above-mentioned workshops were working on concurrently at that time – information which was previously unknown. In turn, the preserved company letterhead authorised with the original stamps provides useful information on the functioning of these types of workshops, their products and achievements. In quite a distinct manner, the letterhead also tells us a little about the history of the workshops. The above example confirms that works of art or archival material stored until this day in locations outside urban areas can valuably supplement and sometimes even alter our knowledge of stained glass art in Poland.
More...
In this paper, Heidegger’s understanding of art is analysed with regard to the status of painting, for which I claim to be of equal status as poetry. Such claim is derived from Heidegger’s commentaries on Klee, which show that the essence of painting is not a presentation of beings, but the revelation of our grasp of Being. The same idea is analysed considering Heidegger’s short comment on Franz Marc from his early works, with the conclusion that Hedegger’s attack on an abstract painting is not the consequence of demand that painting should present us with some concrete being, some object. Finally, the specific status of poetry and painting indicate the new understanding of the image in Heidegger, which in return demands for the revision of the usual interpretation of Heidegger’s philosophy of art.
More...
This presentation of works by the Slovak photographer and teacher Lena Jakubčáková (b. 1980) is based on a selection of two scholarly articles that were written about her and some author´s texts or fragments from her books. Together with her biographical information and a brief overview of her exhibitions at home and abroad, the magazine provides information about Jakubčáková’s activity as a creative photographer. The articles, by Jindřich Štreit (2016) and Ivana Komanická (2017), offer interpretations of her key series – of her two long-term documentary projects, which essentially talk about prison, faith, solitude, individual freedom and revolt, and which were completed in the form of a book. The author´s texts and the excerpts from two books File 44 and Granny from the Woods reveal her relationship to the photographed persons. Everything is accompanied by more than fifty photographs, in black-and-white and in colour, some of which come from the author´s archive and the exhibition documentation.
More...
Michelangelo Antonioni’s "Zabriskie Point"(1970) – a film about political and cultural unrest in the US in the late 1960s – not only was a commercial failure, but it was also completely destroyed by American (and not only American) critics. Masłoń tries to show that the allegedly simplified representation of American conflicts that the film is accused of showing, is in the "Zabriskie Point" a reflection of ahistorical pastoral ideology, professed by a large part of American society, which Antonioni not only presents, but also analyses. What is more, what critics took for naive and groundless idealization of youth counter-culture, if one looks closely at the film, turns out to be an unbiased and perceptive analysis of the mechanisms of their fantasy and their relationship with the virtual world created by the media.
More...
The article is devoted to narrative techniques used by Oliver Stone in "Natural Born Killers" (1994). The author describes how Stone undermines the convention of traditional road cinema and the scheme of initiation journey. In addition, Birkholc argues that the narrative of the film, full of intertextual, stylistic and genre references, is subjectively motivated by the “sensitivity” of the characters, which was shaped by neo-television. Stone uses a very special form of focalization, which is emphasizing the media mediation of the character’s consciousness and – thus – questioning the image of a free and independent subject. The contradictory strategy of the creator, trying to describe the fundamental cultural and social changes, makes the "Natural Born Killers" an extremely intriguing record of the ambivalent experience of American culture in the era of neo-television.
More...
The text is an attempt at the broadest possible approach to the issue of migration in film on the example of German cinema. To this end, the author introduces four analytical categories, within which she defines individual contexts of migratory cinema – that is, cinema created by artists with such experience and, although not necessarily, devoted to this subject – while assigning them specific film works. Fiuk calls these categories spaces, deriving the relevance of this term from the significance of various types of space for the migration phenomenon: territories, spheres, areas, fields, and then classifies them as: space of time, place, culture and medium. In addition, to characterize migration cinema in Germany, she uses the concepts of post-migration, trans-culturality and trans-nationality, referring to existing theories, but also proposing her own understanding of these terms.
More...
The article deals with two films, which are examples of contemporary diasporic cinema, whose characters come from countries with a Muslim religious tradition: from Turkey and Morocco. "The Great Journey" (2004) by Ismaël Ferroukhi and "The Edge of Heaven" (2007) by Fatih Akın are films about the intergenerational distance in diaspora families, and the formula of the road cinema used in them illustrates the attempt of the heroes to get closer to themselves thanks to a joint ("The Great Journey") or separate ("The Edge of Heaven") overcoming large spaces. In both of these films there is a characteristic theme of diasporic cinema, which is the myth of a glorious return. Both films also take the form of film parables whose significance is rooted in Islamic spirituality and beliefs. Whilst the two films are not religious in the strict sense, they strongly mythologise space: in a positive manner in the case of "The Great Journey" and negative in "The Edge of Heaven".
More...
Starting from James Clifford’s statement that ethnography is a product of travel experience and referring to the concept of Michael Taussig, who in his studies of South American tribes took into account the history of colonial conquest, the impact of missionary activities and the role of cultural borrowings, Loska proposes an analysis of the Colombian film "Embrace of the Serpent" ("El abrazo de la serpiente", 2015, directed by Ciro Guerra) in a post-colonial perspective. The author interprets this film as an attempt to critically consider the Amazon myth, that is the European fantasy created by explorers and travellers seeking Paradise Lost, but also as a story of disinheritance from tradition, loss of memory by indigenous people, reflection on the effects of colonial violence and hybridization (understood as a space where influences clash and languages mix).
More...
The author compares selected aspects of the work of two directors who are separated by a considerable time distance: Robert Flaherty and Wojciech Staroń. The American classic travelled with the camera to distant places to find the Other, to save from oblivion and to promote the values that the Other was a carrier of. Contemporary film-makers are increasingly travelling to distant areas to protect themselves and to find themselves again. Both authors refer to the utopia of the place. Like in an “educational” utopia, the most important goal of staying outside one’s own civilization circle seems to be education or re-education. Especially Staroń’s "Argentinian Lesson" inspires reflection on the educational aspect and dimension of films and documentaries of both directors, which refer to the search for authenticity, an aspiration present in Western culture since the Enlightenment.
More...
British architect and filmmaker Patrick Keiller is the author of the crictially acclaimed "Robinson Trilogy" ("London", "Robinson in Space", "Robinson in Ruins"). Keiller’s unique style of filmmaking intentionally depicts places that are nearly or altogether devoid of human presence and activity. They are sites in which events might take place, and the events are seen rather as possible contemporary myths. Keiller’s film essays explore the notions of place, the production of space, the workings of memory and the feeling of nostalgia. His investigation into the idea of “drifting”, understood as free association in space, reveals Keiller’s fascination with the “built environment” presented in an innovate filmic way, combining imagery, sound and editing. The paper concentrates on the first part of his trilogy, where the author addresses the “problem of London”.
More...
The author of the article proposes a look at Pavel Lungin’s "The Island" in terms of a film about a spiritual path realized as an internal disposition of man, independent of external circumstances. The main hero’s penitential pilgrimage, which is the result of conversion, does not take place physically, but takes place in his bodily and spiritual emptiness, prayer, directing his life towards God and towards other people. It is also a return pilgrimage to the hero’s experience of the overwhelming reality of divine immanence and transcendence as well as the reality of interpersonal relations. In parallel, the spiritual paths of the other protagonists of The Island lead to Anatoly, who changes their trajectory. The inner world and the metaphysical movement in the film are realized in its verbal layer, whereas the external world and physical movement in its image layer. It is also a film about existential travel, prompting philosophical reflection on human identity.
More...
An important figure in the work of Theodoros Angelopoulos is the refugee, and many of his characters have just such a status. Importantly however they consider themselves refugees regardless of the place in which they find themselves. They are condemned to travel, to an everlasting journey from place to place in search of home they covet so much. Angelopoulos emphasized that his films are also a search or a quest and that is why each of them is a journey. In his work this subject is largely related to the category of time. We should understand travel in the broadest sense possible, also as human life. The director devotes great attention to the passage of time, as evidenced by such films as "Eternity and a Day or Voyage to Cythera". The interrelation of time and the theme of travel seems to be one of the deepest intentions of the Greek artist. In the article, Cichoń attempts to interpret Angelopoulos’ films as specific journeys through time.
More...
The author attempts to analyse the film "Happy Together" (1997) by Wong Kar-wai in terms of auteur cinema, road movie, motifs of Chinese and Argentinian culture, and the political situation. The focus is on the journey of a pair of homosexual protagonists to Buenos Aires, where they try to save their relationship, but they break up and try to live separately, although their paths still cross. Argentina, that from the perspective of Hong Kong is highly exotic, overwhelms one with emptiness and gives rise to alienation, which each of the characters tries to overcome in their own way: by working and saving for the return ticket home, or by immersing and losing oneself in the night life. Although the film is set in Buenos Aires, there are many motifs derived from Chinese tradition, such as strong family ties or filial piety. Happy Together also has an atmosphere of imminent defeat that accompanied Hong Kong residents before July 1, 1997, when the British colony became once again a part of China.
More...
Mrtvo tijelo kako se prevodi ‘kolpomorto’ odnosno ‘korpomorto’, složena je izložbena cjelina koja razmatra tamne aspekte zbilje hrvatskog obalnog područja o kojem uobičajeno volimo razmišljati kao o jednom od najljepših kutaka planete.
More...
The paper presents a study of the visual discourses of Croatian editions of children’s classics translated from English into Croatian. It focuses on trends in using the original illustrations from the source texts or providing new illustrations in individual publications of target texts and on finding and interpreting semantic shifts in images provided by Croatian artists, in comparison with the illustrations in the first editions of the source texts. Interlingual translators adopt various strategies to cope with cultural and stylistic aspects of the source texts, and semantic shifts are almost inevitable. They are even more often perceived in translations of children’s literature. Children’s books regularly include intersemiotic translations of the verbal text in the form of images, which carry important narrative and cultural meanings. These may become fragile in translation. The analysis of images in Croatian publications with new sets of illustrations has detected modifications of original narrative meanings, leading to semantic shifts. Further, the analysis of the publishing practices has revealed a tendency in the recent period towards introducing new sets of illustrations more often than prior to the 1990s. Finally, the paper considers the reasons for and implications of these findings.
More...
Review of: Ivana Peruško Vindakijević, Od Oktobra do otpora: Mit o sovjetsko-jugoslavenskom bratstvu u Hrvatskoj i Rusiji kroz književnost, karikaturu i film (1917. – 1991.). Zagreb: Fraktura. 2018. 380 str.
More...