Enfilade

Pałac Karnickich, Warsaw. Constructed in 1877 for a government official and rebuilt after World War II, the building now houses the Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau.

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From ArtHist.net and the Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau:

Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the German Historical Institute, Warsaw, 12–14 September 2023

Proposals due by 31 January 2023

The synagogues that remained standing after World War II have faced an uncertain destiny. As abandoned buildings, they were susceptible to decay quickly and, as former buildings of worship—for legal, cultural, and architectural reasons—posed a great challenge in terms of their reuse. Consequently, many synagogues simply fell into ruins, some were turned into secular buildings of various purposes, and few could have been used as houses of prayer again.

In postwar Europe, synagogue architecture was culturally categorized as an element of Jewish heritage that appeared to be isolated from the common heritage of a city or town—wherever a synagogue stood. At first, synagogues were not considered a shared but a distinct patrimony of a place. A shift in such a state of affairs could have been observed in the last three decades that witnessed a ‘rediscovery’ of synagogues. Though one can still find abandoned synagogues in small towns, in most of the bigger municipalities, these buildings were ‘rediscovered’ as a part of local history and culture and thus became part of the common heritage. In many regions of Europe, the ‘rediscovery’ of the former synagogues led to their restoration and opening to the public, and in rare cases, to their reuse by Jewish communities.

These processes have already been quite well researched in western parts of Europe. A desideratum, however, is approach to the Jewish architectural heritage in those East-Central European territories, whose state affiliation changed after 1945 and whose population was exchanged. For example, in the former Eastern German territories, synagogues still standing at the end of the war became a foreign body in the urban space in a double sense. They neither belonged to the heritage of the new inhabitants, understood as ‘national’ or ‘own’, nor were they clearly attributable to the heritage of the pre-war German population. Synagogues were, therefore, not ‘hostile’ buildings, but in any case, they were irritating as characteristic objects of architecture. A contributing factor was that Jewish communities lasted only in a few cities in these areas.

The aim of the conference is a historicization of the processes of rediscovery in the recent past. We invite contributions linking the historical dimension in dealing with the Jewish architectural heritage with current developments in this field. The focus will be on the historical, political, and cultural preconditions and present processes having an impact on the handling of the Jewish built heritage. The key actors and decision-makers should also be taken into account. Therefore, the connection of the micro and macro levels is indispensable for the understanding of these developments because the impact of local actors and political decisions at the central level are closely interrelated. Global and memory culture trends have also contributed to the interest or disinterest in the respective religious buildings. In addition, transnational networks that influenced the preservation of synagogues will be considered, for example, in the context of the Polish-German dialogue.

The conference will not only discuss examples of a ‘successful rediscovery’ of Jewish architectural monuments. The aim is rather to draw conclusions about broader contexts based on concrete examples. It may be possible to identify patterns that indicate ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of the rediscovery. We also invite contributions that would pose the question of a model of a ‘successful’ or ‘failed’ rediscovery. If possible, however, the focus should be on those East- Central European cities or regions whose territorial affiliation changed in the wake of World War II.

The conference is a cooperation of Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe at TU Braunschweig, GHI Warsaw and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It takes place within the framework of the “DFG Priority Program 2357: Jewish Cultural Heritage,” which is funded by the German Research Foundation. The conference will take place 12–14 September 2023 at the POLIN Museum for the History of Polish Jews and at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. Travel costs to and from the conference can be reimbursed within the usual limits.

Submissions will be accepted from any discipline as long as the topic relates to this broad theme. Scholars, experts, and practitioners are welcome. Abstracts should be 200–300 words. Although we welcome speakers from any country, the language of the conference will be English. For best consideration, please submit your abstract and a short CV by 31 January 2023 to Kamila Lenartowicz (k.lenartowicz@tu-braunschweig.de) and Christhardt Henschel (henschel@dhi.waw.pl). Applicants will be informed about their participation by 14 March 2023.

Organizers
• Kamila Lenartowicz and Zuzanna Światowy (Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe, Technische Universität Braunschweig)
• Christhardt Henschel (German Historical Institute, Warsaw)
• Aleksandra Jakubczak-Gabay (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews)

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For the American context, see Mark Gordon, “Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: 2022 Update on United States Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Synagogues,” American Jewish Historical Society (4 November 2021), available here. –CH

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Note (added 18 January 2023) — More information on the polychrome ceiling, a life-sized wooden replica of the ceiling of the synagogue of Gwoździec at the POLIN Museum, is available here at Enfilade (now largely out-dated) and here with Ariel Fein’s essay for SmartHistory (4 April 2022).

 

From the conference website:

Listening In: Conversations on Architectures, Cities, and Landscapes, 1700–1900
ETH Zurich, 14–15 September 2023

Proposals due by 10 March 2023

Who do we listen to when we write histories of architectures, cities, and landscapes? How many women authors can we find among our sources? How many of them are cited by those whose research we read? We argue that women and other marginalised groups have always been part of conversations on architectures, cities, and landscapes—but we have not had the space to listen to them. This conference is an invitation to reconstruct such conversations, real, imagined, and metaphorical ones, taking place in the 18th and 19th centuries, in any region, in order to diversify the ways we write histories. Taking the art of conversation, integral as both practice and form to the period in Western thought, and repurposing it to dismantle the exclusivity of historiography, this conference calls for contributions which bring women into dialogue with others.

Listening In proposes a new approach to the ‘canon’ and its protagonists. Rather than either fighting its existence or expanding it by means of ‘exceptions to the rule’, we call for the setting up of productive conversations. We acknowledge that the canon never exists on its own; instead, it is shaped by what Griselda Pollock has called “that which, while repressed, is always present as its structuring other” (1999, 8). This conference is envisaged as a listening exercise. We regard a conversation as both codified practice as well as a specific act of verbal exchange, spoken or written, on a particular subject—here architectures, cities, and landscapes—occurring in a specific site, from street to salon, kitchen to court, construction site to theatre, field to church, or book to newspaper, to name but a few.

We invite papers on conversations that grapple with hierarchies and inequalities, incorporating asymmetrical power relationships while taking care not to gloss over the struggle, pain, and conflict often occurring in these situations. Papers should highlight at least one protagonist identifying as a woman, and are encouraged to also listen to
• persons marginalised because of their race, class, religion, sexual orientation, or else,
• so-called ‘canonical’ figures, both architects and critics as well as those from other professions, disciplines, or domains,
• individuals from different geographical regions, including those affected by the violence of imperialism and colonialism.

Can a focus on conversations help to include in historiography new protagonists as well as sites which we have so far not seen? How about printed sites, in pamphlets, books, magazines, newspapers, or letter writing? And what are the critical notions around which these conversations occur, such as the sublime, character, or sensibility, but also those emerging from indigenous or non-western knowledges, on different sites and in different media? Further, what shifts, if we start from conversations, rather than, for instance, drawings and buildings? How will it affect histories of architectures, cities, and landscapes if these conversations are inclusive rather than exclusive?

This call invites contributions from and on all regions, particularly those that centre intersectional marginalisations. We are interested to hear about every-day experiences and sites so far less explored as well as new reflections on better-known events and structures. We hope to attract speakers from diverse regions, disciplines, backgrounds, and career stages, who are willing to engage with new materials in innovative ways, listening to each other and our sources. The conference is planned as a focused, single-strand event aimed at creating networks of scholars, facilitating exchanges, stimulating groundbreaking discussions, and producing new knowledges.

Listening In is organised in the context of two externally funded research projects based at gta, ETH Zurich: WoWA (Women Writing Architecture 1700–1900) is funded by the ERC, led by Anne Hultzsch, and studies female experiences of architecture and landscapes as recorded in women’s writings from South America and Europe. The SNSF-funded project Building Identity: Character in Architectural Discourse and Design 1750–1850, led by Sigrid de Jong and Maarten Delbeke, focuses on the uses and meaning of the notion of ‘character’ in architectural criticism and practice. Both projects share an interest in the experiences of marginalised groups, especially those who identified as women, and strive to have them heard not in a niche, but in the centre of our field. With this conference we wish to open up our approaches to a wider field of research, going beyond our respective geographical frameworks.

Please submit the following by 10 March 2023 to listening@arch.ethz.ch
• an abstract of no more than 300 words
• your name and professional affiliation if any
• a short curriculum vitae (ca 100 words)

Key Dates
1 December 2022 Launch call for papers
10 March 2023 Deadline to submit abstracts
April 2023 Paper selection and notification of authors
1 May 2023 Speakers confirm their participation
14–15 September 2023 Conference at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Organisers
PD Dr Anne Hultzsch
Dr Sigrid de Jong
Prof Maarten Delbeke
Dr Sol Pérez Martínez

From the Call for Papers:

Community and Collaboration in Dutch and Flemish Art, 1560–1800
Center for Netherlandish Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 12 May 2023

Organized by Rachel Kase and Sarah Mallory

Proposals due by 1 February 2023

The Center for Netherlandish Art (CNA) seeks 20-minute papers from emerging scholars that critically and creatively engage with the theme of Community and Collaboration in Dutch and Flemish Art in the long 17th century (ca. 1560–1800), with a particular interest in topics that explore new methods or histories.

Topics might include but are not limited to:
• Visualizations of artists’ studios and other spaces of cooperation
• Physical and psychological isolation and exile within and beyond the Dutch Republic and Flanders
• Artists as community leaders
• The role of gender and gender identity in community

A total of three papers will be selected for presentation during the 2023 CNA Colloquium, scheduled for Friday, 12 May 2023. This daylong event offers a platform for selected emerging scholars to share original research with the international community of experts in the field. The program will be held in a hybrid format, allowing for both in-person and virtual participation. Further event details will be shared closer to the event date.

We invite contributions from MA students, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral researchers with less than five years of working experience. Individuals of all nationalities may apply. As we amplify our efforts toward becoming truly inclusive, ensuring that diversity and equity are lived values, we actively encourage candidates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to submit proposals.

Please submit a title and abstract (500 words maximum) and a CV in one single PDF file to cna@mfa.org, with ‘Call for Papers’ included in the email’s subject line. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis through February 1, 2023. Selected participants will be notified by 17 February 2023. Selected candidates will have the opportunity to workshop their papers during a rehearsal presentation one week prior to the event.

Scholarship and museum exhibitions have long recognized the artistic achievements of individual artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens, but in the 17th-century Netherlands collaboration, partnership, and studio practices fueled artistic creativity and production. Studio practices, such as those described by Rembrandt’s pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten, could also reinforce and reflect power and hierarchy. Likewise, Rubens and his pupil Anthony van Dyck together shaped—and re-shaped—visual convention for aristocratic portraiture. Artists reached outside the studio to engage with collaborators in other professions, forming partnerships that resulted in various types of printed, visual, and performing arts. Artist studios, guilds, chambers of rhetoric, marketplaces, universities, churches, and private homes—to name a few places—also served as sites of artistic mentorship, teaching, and innovation.

On the other hand, long periods of travel and infrequent correspondence made it difficult to forge lines of communication or connection. Though many artists were active in creative and commercial centers, some were not. Some may have experienced uncomfortable isolation—phases of boredom and restlessness, social confinement, or geographic remoteness—not dissimilar to the experience that many people had early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work of Frans Post and Albert Eckhout demonstrates some ways in which Dutch artists attempted to represent ideas of community and isolation beyond the Republic, while Dutch and Flemish artists such as the Bamboccianti and Bentvueghels sought the companionship of their countrymen even while pursuing new ideas and experiences in Rome. Gender, political beliefs, religious affiliations, and other aspects of personal identity also informed artistic collaboration and a sense of community; as much as some artists were embraced for their abilities and beliefs, others were exiled. From Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Jan Steen’s crowded and lively scenes of taverns and domestic life, to the isolation seen in Rembrandt’s later self-portraits—works of art from this period show a spectrum of collaboration and community throughout the period.

Organized by Rachel Kase and Sarah Mallory, with support from the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Adolphe Duperly, The Destruction of the Roehampton Estate in the Parish of St. James, Jamaica, January 1832, 1833, hand colored lithograph, 29 × 41 cm. This copy of the print was sold at Christie’s on 24 April 2012; Sale 4826, Lot 282.

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From ArtHist.net and The Bartlett School of Architecture:

Constructing Coloniality: British Imperialism and the Built Environment Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, 12–14 May 2023

Organized by Eva Branscome and Neal Shasore

Proposals due by 27 January 2023

Demands to ‘decolonise’ have grown louder and louder in recent years, not least in architecture, architectural history, and heritage. In Britain public monuments and spaces have loomed large in discussions about the legacies of slavery and empire and the processes of repair, from Edward Colston in Bristol and Cecil Rhodes in Oxford, to Winston Churchill, and numerous others in London—as has the ‘colonial countryside’ manifest in National Trust and English Heritage properties and their interpretation. Meanwhile, the dynamics and effects of British colonialism play out in buildings, cities, and landscapes across the world: in the reshaping of the Raj’s New Delhi by the Indian government, for example, or in the perpetuation of plantation structures in the Caribbean. In seeking to forge a decolonial architecture, architectural history, and heritage practice amid a polarised debate, it is necessary to deepen our understanding of the built environment’s complex entanglements with coloniality—not just the act of colonialism, but also the social, economic, and political relations and attitudes that spawned, sustained, and endured beyond it. Moreover, the disciplines involved in the production of knowledge about built environments and how they are formed in different temporalities and geographies must take a broader view, scrutinising not just the subjects of research, but the methods deployed and the modes used to disseminate the results. This conference focuses on the coloniality of architecture and heritage in relation to the British Empire, from the early years of expansionism and the escalation of the slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the physical and political force wielded in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the development of racial capitalism, to the subsequent and ongoing struggles for independence, freedom, and justice. Contributions are welcomed that reassess the built environment in Britain and (former) British colonies in terms of its relationship to colonial systems and ideas, including but not limited to • Domestic environments • Urban environments, including streets, squares, and gardens • Factories and other sites of industrial production • Sites of assembly, leisure, and entertainment • Places of worship • Buildings for colonial administration • Infrastructure such as ports, waterways, and railways • Intercolonial networks and infrastructures • Experiences of colonial dispossession, displacement, and exclusion • Heritage sites and conservation Alongside or in the process of examining such subjects, typologies, and morphologies, we welcome reflections on the following historiographical and methodological questions: • How have the professions, disciplines, and discourses of architecture, design, and heritage been shaped by and participated in imperialism, coloniality, and racism? • What the knowledge systems and epistemologies are that construct ideas of ‘architecture’ and ‘heritage’, and what is excluded and why? • How teaching and its institutional contexts reinforce these frameworks? • How financial systems, supply chains, and concepts of tenure and relations to the land shape the production of built environments? • How does the coloniality of architecture and heritage relate to histories of extractivism and energy use? The conference organisers are Dr Eva Branscome (Bartlett School of Architecture) and Dr Neal Shasore (London School of Architecture), with advice from an International Academic Committee. We encourage participants to submit their paper to the SAHGB’s journal Architectural History for consideration. Fuller details about the conference and how to book will be publicised in due course. Abstracts of a minimum of 300 words and maximum of 500 words are invited for this major architectural history conference being held in person at the Bartlett School of Architecture in mid-May 2023. Up to three pages of images can also be supplied. However, all of the text/images in each case must be combined together into one single Acrobat PDF file for submission or else will not be accepted. We invite conventional paper proposals, but welcome other appropriate formats to our subject matter such as poster presentations, films etc. Prospective contributors should submit titles and abstracts to conference2023@sahgb.org.uk by 27 January 2023 with participation confirmed by 27 February 2023. To ensure equal treatment for all submissions, the organisers will not respond to any individual queries about the content of papers or about the thematic categories. The selection panel will assess each of the proposed papers on an anonymous basis. Applicants need to ensure that they have their own sources of funding available to take part in the conference as online presentations will not be possible. This three-day conference is hosted by The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) in collaboration with UCL and the London School of Architecture.

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Note on the image from Christie’s: “The Christmas Rebellion, also known as the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831–32, was a 10-day rebellion that mobilised as many as 60,000 of Jamaica’s 300,000 slave population. This lithograph illustrates the destruction of the mill yard and slave village at the Roehamton Estate owned by J.Baillie Esq., in January 1832.”  

From ArtHist.net:

Soundscapes of Naples: From the Medieval to the Early Modern
Naples, 8–9 June 2023

Proposals due by 31 January 2023

Musical practices are inherently woven into a city’s urban fabric: as marker of identity, expression of religious devotion, sonic manifestation of power, or form of entertainment, musicking punctuates the salient moments of a city’s culture. In Naples, for centuries a cultural and political capital and among the most densely populated cities in Europe, music making has always occupied a prominent position in the soundscape of public and private, sacred and secular spaces.

The interdisciplinary conference, Soundscapes of Naples: From the Medieval to the Early Modern, aims to map intersections between the performative dimension of music making and the city’s spaces and places. The organizing committee invites proposals that focus on physical venues (churches, monasteries, theaters, aristocratic palaces, schools, the public piazza, and so on, including their visual programs) as they interface with music performance and production. We welcome proposals on musicking as a cultural practice from musicologists as well as scholars from sister disciplines, including art and architectural history, archaeology, history, literary studies, and anthropology, on themes and approaches such as manuscript and print production, archival studies, music and gender, patronage/matronage, performance practice, history of the senses, acoustics, history of pedagogy, relationships between music and specific works of art, notions of ability/disability, and instrument making.

Proposals should include a curriculum vitae, a brief narrative biography (max. 150 words), and an abstract (max. 350 words), and may be in either Italian or English. The abstract should also indicate the topic’s relevance to the themes outlined above, and whether the proposed contribution could take the form of a presentation on-site at the monument under discussion. Final presentations (20 minutes) may be made in Italian or English. Please combine these materials in a single Word or PDF document with Lastname_Firstname as the title, and send to lacapraia@gmail.com by 31 January 2023. Selected participants will be notified in mid-February 2023.

Soundscapes of Naples: From the Medieval to the Early Modern is coorganized by the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities ‘La Capraia’ (a partnership between the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte) and the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Call for Papers from Fabula:

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux dans le texte: Lectures de L’architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’art, des moeurs et de la législation (1804)
Saline royale d’Arc-et-Senans, 1–3 June 2023

Proposals due by 31 December 2022

Colloque de clôture du projet Ledoux 2020–2023
Architecture, littérature, philosophie et société au tournant des Lumières : L’Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’Art des mœurs et de la législation de Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, une édition numérique
(Labex Les Passés dans le Présent, Université Paris-Nanterre)

L’Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’Art, des mœurs et de la législation, que l’architecte Claude-Nicolas Ledoux fait paraître en 1804, deux ans avant sa mort, est l’ouvrage le plus célèbre et le texte plus fascinant de toute l’architecture moderne européenne. Premier tome d’une oeuvre monument qui devait en compter cinq, cet ouvrage testamentaire au “style magique et poétique” (Cellerier) fait figure de véritable OVNI dans la production architecturale de l’époque. Ledoux y travaille pendant trente années pour l’élaboration de l’illustration (près de 500 planches, dont 125 publiées en 1804), et pendant près de dix ans pour établir un texte de 240 pages. Il conçoit ainsi une œuvre à la mesure de son ambition artistique totale. Or, parmi l’immense bibliographie et historiographie sur Ledoux, essentiellement consacrée à l’œuvre bâti et projeté, le livre lui-même et le texte de L’Architecture… n’ont que rarement fait l’objet d’études approfondies et a fortiori exclusives. Quant aux études littéraires, pourtant en pleine réévaluation de cette période du tournant des Lumières, elles l’ont plutôt négligé.

Dans la lignée des travaux pionniers de Béatrice Didier (qui avait tenté, la première, de situer la plume de Ledoux dans le contexte littéraire du tournant des Lumières), de Mona Ozouf (qui s’intéressa à la représentation livresque de Chaux) et des grandes analyses de Daniel Rabreau (qui a replacé l’écriture mythologique et poétique dans le projet esthétique global de Ledoux), ce colloque se propose de jeter toute la lumière possible sur le livre, la représentation de l’architecture, le texte et l’écriture de Ledoux, dans une approche et un esprit résolument interdisciplinaire, seule démarche à même, par le croisement des regards d’historiens, d’historiens de l’art, d’historiens des idées, de spécialistes de littérature ou de rhétorique…, de percer la densité et l’épaisseur des strates de sens de ce livre hiéroglyphe.

Cette rencontre plurielle, autour du texte de Ledoux, est le point d’aboutissement d’une démarche collective qui a engagé une quinzaine de chercheurs au sein du projet LEDOUX 2020–2023 du Labex Les Passés dans le Présent (université de Paris-Nanterre) dans la réalisation d’une édition scientifique et collaborative de l’Architecture, comportant un double volet, papier et numérique.

Accueilli par la Saline d’Arc-et-Senans, institution partenaire du projet LEDOUX, le colloque sera donc l’occasion de partager les acquis de ce travail collectif et de l’enrichir en l’ouvrant aux apports de chercheurs extérieurs.

Ces lectures de Ledoux, pourront, sans exclusive, explorer les dimensions suivantes :

La fabrique du texte de L’Architecture

Au-delà de la chronologie globale proposée par Gallet et Vidler, qui situe la rédaction entre son emprisonnement à la Force pendant la Terreur et le début du XIXe siècle, comment retracer une généalogie du texte de Ledoux ? Comment L’Architecture trouve-t-elle à s’inscrire dans un réseau d’autres textes connus de Ledoux (le Manuscrit Calonne, les extraits de la correspondance ou encore le Prospectus de 1803) qui pourraient en éclairer la genèse et la singularité ?

Quels éclairages peut apporter l’analyse du vaste réseau d’intertextes qui travaille L’Architecture et qui attend encore de véritables enquêtes d’archéologie textuelle et culturelle ? Entre Anciens (Homère, Ovide, Virgile, Plutarque, Lucien, Cicéron, César, Tacite…) et Modernes (La Fontaine, Fénelon, Diderot, Voltaire, mais aussi Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson, ou encore Gresset ou Gluck…), entre influences (d’une forme, d’un genre..), réécritures (d’un topos, d’un motif) voire reprises et citations (d’un extrait, d’un passage…), quelles formes prennent ces réappropriations littéraires multiples ? Comment participent-elles concrètement de la fabrique de l’imaginaire esthétique et historique ? Sous l’empreinte fièrement revendiquée que l’architecte laisse dans la pierre, quelle figure de l’écrivain ces emprunts, plutôt souterrains, dessinent-ils ? Et pour quels lecteurs ? Des “enfants chéris d’Apollon”, auxquels Ledoux s’adresse explicitement, jusqu’aux lecteurs d’aujourd’hui, comment a-t-on lu et lit-on encore Ledoux ? Avec quelle culture ? Pour quelle expérience ?

La fabrique des idées : Ledoux, penseur des Lumières ?

L’Architecture peut bel et bien être envisagée comme une formidable chambre d’échos, au crépuscule du siècle, de la pensée des Lumières. On pourra dès lors s’interroger sur les façons dont se diffusent et se cristallisent, dans le texte, ces grands courants de pensée qui traversent le demi-siècle : le sensualisme, auquel sont acquis de nombreux architectes, l’héritage encyclopédiste, la sensibilité rousseauiste, la pensée économique et physiocratique, la religion comme morale…

Dans quelle mesure Ledoux fait-il siennes ces idées partagées par le siècle ? Avec quelle singularité et quelle solidité ? Quel type de philosophe est-il ?

La fabrique des images : fiction et figurations

Les réflexions pourront aussi se réunir autour de la notion centrale d’image, au carrefour des enjeux propre à l’écriture, à l’illustration et à la théorie de la création artistique.

De quelle manière l’image travaille-t-elle en profondeur l’écriture et la langue de Ledoux ? Avec quels héritages rhétoriques ? Quels usages de l’univers mythologique ? Selon quelles modalités stylistiques (innovations lexicales, constructions syntaxiques) ? Pour quels réseaux de sens, entre unité et dissémination ?

Comment l’imagination (celle de l’architecte comme celle du lecteur) s’invite-t-elle au cœur du pacte de fiction qui commande le récit (avec le périple romanesque du voyageur) ou encore la description (avec le recours incessant à une esthétique du tableau, qu’on pourra interroger) ?

Enfin, quels types de relations les images textuelles entretiennent-elles avec les images gravées ?

L’histoire et la théorie des arts et de l’architecture

Comment situer l’entreprise éditoriale de Ledoux dans l’histoire du livre et de la théorie d’architecture, tant à l’époque moderne (une histoire qui reste d’ailleurs à écrire, malgré des travaux consacrés à l’Italie ou encore l’Angleterre) qu’au début du XIXe siècle, (période charnière pour l’édition en général et le livre d’architecture en particulier) ? Que représente L’Architecture, entre le Livre d’architecture de Boffrand (1745), les grandes monographies de la fin du XVIIIe siècle, comme la Description des écoles de chirurgie de Gondouin (1780), et les recueils de modèles du début du siècle suivant, comme l’Architecture civile de Dubut (1803) ou les recueils de Krafft, et les ouvrages pédagogiques, comme le Précis des leçons d’architecture de Durand (1802–1805) ? Quels liens le projet de Ledoux entretient-il avec d’autres écrits théoriques, aux ambitions parfois littéraires, comme les textes de Boullée et les Lettres sur l’architecture de Viel de Saint-Maux (1779), par exemple ?

Mais c’est aussi le rapport que l’architecte entretient avec l’Antiquité et les œuvres modernes, la Renaissance italienne et la création française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, qu’il est possible d’examiner plus précisément à la lecture fine du texte de L’Architecture. Quelle est donc la culture architecturale de Ledoux ? Est-elle simplement livresque pour ce qui regarde les sites et édifices lointains ? N’a-t-il jamais vraiment fait l’expérience des sites antiques et des monuments modernes qu’il décrit à l’appui d’une démonstration ? Enfin, comment s’exprime, dans son texte, l’admiration inspiratrice qu’il porte aux peintres, aux sculpteurs, mais aussi l’intérêt qu’il montre pour l’art des jardins ?

Les propositions de communications (3000 signes maximum) sont à envoyer avant le 31 décembre 2022.

à : fabrice.moulin@parisnanterre.fr, dominiquemassounie@gmail.com

Comité d’organisation
• Fabrice Moulin, Paris-Nanterre, CSLF (litt&phi / ILHAM)
• Dominique Massounie, Paris-Nanterre, H-Mod/HAR
• Isabelle Sallé, Saline royale d’Arc-et-Senans

Comité scientifique
• Emmanuel Chateau-Dutier, professeur agrégé, université de Montréal
• Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc, professeure, université Paris-Nanterre
• Michel Delon, professeur émérite, université Paris-Sorbonne
• Colas Duflo, professeur, Paris-Nanterre, IUF
• Hugues Marchal, professeur-assistant, université de Bâle, IUF
• Elise Pavy-Guilbert, maîtresse de conférences, université Bordeaux-Montaigne, IUF

 

Proposals welcome in German, French, or English. From the Call for Papers, which also includes the German text:

La presse périodique suisse dans le contexte médiatique européen
Die periodische Presse in der Schweiz im medialen Kontext Europas
Tagung der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts (SGEAJ)
Colloque de la Société Suisse pour l’Étude du XVIIIe Siècle (SSEDS)
University of Fribourg, 18–19 April 2024

Proposals due by 5 March 20223

Lorsque le premier journal imprimé parait à Strasbourg en 1605, il ne dispose pas d’un programme de publication nouveau. Pour l’éditeur, l’imprimeur Johann Carolus, il s’agit simplement d’économiser les frais afférents à la diffusion d’un journal manuscrit et d’optimiser sa diffusion. Pourtant, malgré ce début peu spectaculaire et un contenu fait de la compilation de nouvelles sans commentaire éditorial, la presse imprimée a un succès décisif. Désormais, une information régulière sur ce qui se passe dans le monde est disponible. Un nouveau système de communication et d’information se met en place, qui a l’ambition d’être en prise sur l’actualité. Très tôt, ces publications sont collationnées par les organes de gouvernement des princes et des villes, mais se diversifient aussi rapidement selon le lectorat visé. Des journaux savants, des revues mondaines, des périodiques spécialisés ou généralistes sont ainsi diffusés.

La presse périodique a fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches depuis une quarantaine d’années, favorisées encore par la numérisation des supports—les conditions de conservation sont en effet très aléatoires—en particulier en Allemagne autour de Jürgen Wilke, Holger Böning et Daniel Bellingradt et en France avec Gilles Feyel, Jean-Pierre Vittu ou Pierre Rétat. Malgré les travaux de Jean-Daniel Candaux, de Séverine Huguenin et Timothée Léchot, de Fritz Blaser, Hanspeter Marti et Emil Erne ou Andreas Würgler, la presse suisse reste en revanche moins connue.

Le but de ce colloque est de cerner des périodiques suisses, leur conception, fabrication, profil éditorial et journalistique, mais aussi leurs lectorats. Avec sa diversité confessionnelle, linguistique et politique, la Suisse forme un cas d’étude particulièrement riche des médias locaux, régionaux ou transnationaux. Aussi, le colloque s’attachera aux journalistes suisses hors de Suisse, aux réseaux journalistiques et à leurs mises en œuvre en particulier lors de controverses, au cheminement des nouvelles dans différents médias, aux reprises et compilations commentées ou non, à la gestation de discussions dans les médias, aux rythmes de l’information et à leurs effets, à la perception positive ou négative des journaux et à leur emploi, par exemple dans telle décision. Il se centrera sur la presse périodique tout en prenant aussi en considération des « canards », des libelles, des feuilles volantes (« Flugschriften »), des gravures commentées (« Flugblätter »), des calendriers, des étrennes, des almanachs et des messagers boiteux.

Le cadre chronologique couvre la période de 1623 (premières gazettes hebdomadaires suisses qui nous sont parvenues) à 1803 (fin de la République helvétique).

Trois axes seront particulièrement interrogés.

• La presse périodique suisse dans une perspective transnationale
Ce volet se penchera sur la presse périodique rédigée en Suisse ou lue en Suisse, et les journalistes suisses dans leurs réseaux européens ; sur le marché et la fabrication de l’information, la compilation de l’information ; enfin sur d’autres modes de circulation de l’information

• Intermédialité et savoirs
Cet axe sondera les formes manuscrites, voire orales, de l’information, les correspondances en lien avec la presse périodique

• Les représentations dans et de la presse
Ce pan examinera la circulation des images imprimées, les artistes suisses et la satire politique, la question de la censure, etc. Il étudiera les représentations de la presse et les images de la Suisse dans la presse.

Des analyses littéraires, linguistiques ou iconographiques et des études sur l’histoire des savoirs et l’histoire de la communication et des médias sont les bienvenues.

Un temps de 25 minutes est prévu pour les communications d’un intervenant, et de 40 minutes pour les communications à plusieurs intervenants. Des propositions de thématique peuvent être adressées en allemand, en anglais ou en français (max. 300 mots) jusqu’au 5.03.2023 à Claire Gantet (claire.gantet@unifr.ch) ou Andreas Würgler (Andreas.Wuergler@unige.ch). Le comité de préparation du colloque se prononcera sur elles d’ici le 30.04.2023.

 

From the Call for Papers:

Shaped by Greed: Reflections and Impacts of Environmental Exploitation in European Visual Cultures, 1200–1900
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 8–9 June 2023

Proposals due by 22 January 2023

How have environmental exploitation, industrialization, and urbanization shaped late medieval and modern visual cultures, landscapes, environments, and the built environment in Europe (and beyond)? An international conference hosted by the Art History Department of Masaryk University in Brno, 8–9 June 2023, organized by Tomáš Valeš, Jan Galeta, Martin F. Lešák, and Veronika Řezníčková as 3rd Biennale of the University’s Centre for Early Modern Studies.

During the Anthropocene, the planet Earth has witnessed several environmental shifts, closely affecting not only the current existence of living species but also the overall future of the planet. The exploitation of the environment creates wealth and simultaneously leads to the various ecological, social, economic, and humanitarian crises that contemporary societies are forced to address, especially in reaction to climate change. In the past centuries, the extraction of precious materials (silver, gold, coal, pearls, coral, whale bones, ivory, or even wood) financed the running of states, cities, churches, monasteries, influential families, and clergy who, in turn commissioned luxurious art and opulent buildings, using the mined materials themselves. Industrialization and urbanization had a tremendous impact on the environment and landscape. Currently, these issues also resonate in the field of art history, or rather eco-art history, for example, in connection with groundbreaking studies and edited volumes, such as those by Sugata Ray (Climate Change and the Art of Devotion Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550–1850), Andrew Patrizio (Ecological Eye: Assembling an Ecocritical Art History), and Karl Kusserow (Picture Ecology: Art and Ecocriticism in Planetary Perspective). Following this line of research, the conference’s main aim is to tackle a broad spectrum of relevant questions that have not yet been asked.

We intend to investigate the interconnections between the environment, its exploitation, art, architecture, and urbanism in a broader European frame with global overlap between 1200 and 1900 (thus taking a longue durée perspective). This explicitly includes the transformation of raw mined materials into luxurious objects; sumptuous and prestigious artistic and urbanistic projects financed by the wealth raised by exploiting nature; iconographies that reflect how the environment was treated, shaped and used in late medieval and modern times.

We are particularly interested in bringing together scholars specialized in different academic areas to confront the human impact on past environments and connect it with the sometimes somewhat self-righteous world of art and beauty. Ultimately, the aim is to explore future perspectives of environmental approaches in art history and lay the foundations for further cooperation between researchers from diverse academic backgrounds.

Possible topics may include but are by no means limited to such issues as:
1. The role of industrialization and urbanization and their foot prints on the landscape, environment, and built environment.
2. Visual representation of human impact on the natural world, e.g., mining, logging, whaling, etc.
3. The mechanisms of exploitation of natural resources in connection to artistic production, e.g., in the case of ivory, coral, or various building materials.
4. Appropriation of nature for collecting purposes or personal representation (taxidermies, live specimens, parts of animal bodies, herbariums, portraits of animals, menageries and zoos, etc.)
5. The origins of appreciating wild nature and the reflection of this appreciation in visual culture, e.g., the beginning of mass tourism, scientific research of nature or how travellers mediated non-European nature in their homelands.

The keynote lecture of the conference will be given by Dr. Hannah Baader (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut).

We invite proposals for papers (in English) from senior as well as junior scholars and advanced PhD candidates; presentations will be 20 minutes. Please submit your proposals of around 200–300 words, accompanied by a short CV, by 22 January 2023 to brno.conference.2023@gmail.com. Notification of acceptance of proposals will be issued before 22 February 2023. Selected papers will be published in an edited volume with Brepols publishing house (Belgium).

From the Call for Papers, from IU Bloomington’s Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies:

Bodily Autonomies, Autonomous Bodies
Indiana Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Bloomington, 18–20 May 2023

Proposals due by 20 January 2023; accepted papers due mid-April 2023

The Indiana Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies announces its twenty-first annual Bloomington Workshop: Bodily Autonomies, Autonomous Bodies. The idea of ‘autonomy’ arises in the early modern period in relation to political entities, rather than individuals. A borrowing from the Greek (αὐτο + νόμος) meaning self law, autonomy referred to ability of an institution or a state to govern itself. In the eighteenth century, that scope began to apply increasingly to the capacities of individuals. Indeed, one strong tradition in eighteenth-century studies identifies our period with the invention of the author and the origins of the modern, autonomous individual. Looking back to the early modern, eighteenth-century conceptions of autonomy draw from the foundations that would lead to the birth of the nation state, and from contrasting models of internal and external virtue. From out of the eighteenth-century, the application of the term will spread from Montesquieu’s political philosophy, to Kant’s moral philosophy, and extend across the natural and social sciences. And yet the questions of autonomy—of self governance of a human or a political body—do not move in straight lines or toward easy answers.

Self-governance is often a sweet lie that hides the abuse of power, from the personal level to the geopolitical. Foucault has taught us that the individual operates within a network of power systems—religious, gendered, political, racial, geographic, and colonial, among others—that can influence, abridge, inhibit, or reinforce their ability to exercise agency or will over their life and body. More recently, methodological approaches such as New Materialisms, object-oriented ontologies, and alternative ontological frameworks such as those drawn from Black and indigenous studies often serve to unsettle the concept of autonomy, probing the spaces between the ephemeral capacity to self-govern, the material acts of self-determination, and the very notion of a ‘self’ who can be governed and determined at all. Therefore, with this Workshop theme, we hope to explore the limits of self-governance within the network of power structures that make up the world, to recognize the ways that autonomies exist against the grain of social discourse, and to acknowledge long-running ramifications—both positive and negative—of the aspirational quality of this ideal. At the same time, we look to question whether this idealization has contributed to dogmas of personal responsibility and economic self-interest at the expense of collective forms of action and care.

Within the sphere of the eighteenth century, we invite papers about autonomy as it applies to individuals across the spectrums of power and privilege; of groups whose identity or enforced social status inhibits or countermands their capacity to exercise agency; of national or political entities whose formation, liberation, and sovereignty are impacted by colonial pressures, and work that questions and probes autonomy’s drawbacks and boundaries as they figure in eighteenth-century histories, archives, and texts.

We look forward to reading your abstracts and ideas. A non-exhaustive list of topics they might address would include:

• negotiating questions of self and autonomy for enslaved persons
• the autonomy of gendered bodies
• autonomy within or of a colonized state
• freedom of movement: border-crossings, gatherings, quarantines, departures
• approaches that complicate or question ideas of personal or political sovereignty
• scientism and visions of the body as machine
• the individual figured against a backdrop of control or systems of power
• disenfranchisement: debt, citizenship, exile, etc.

In last year’s Workshop, which focused on Collaborations, questions arose about the limits of what can be considered labor performed together (col + labōrāre) in the context of radically inequal power relationships or within systems of sanctioned oppression. This year we hope to continue these conversations, which hold the echoes of the Center’s first workshop, Signs of the Self, and resound into a present where the concept of the autonomous individual is being questioned for political gain.

During the Workshop, we will discuss pre-circulated texts (due in mid-April) and perhaps have an occasional lecture or library, museum, or archive visit. Given the theme, we are especially open to co- and multi-authored contributions, including those that work across hitherto conventional boundaries of genre, discipline, and media. We intend and hope that the workshop will largely take place in person (and that participants will be present for the entire event), but anticipate making provision for some online participation as well.

The application deadline is Friday, 20 January 2023. Please send a paper proposal (1–2 pages) and current brief CV (3 pages, max) to Dr. Barbara Truesdell, Administrator, Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Please email to voltaire@indiana.edu. We will acknowledge all submissions within a fortnight: if you do not receive an acknowledgment by 31 January 2022, please email voltaire@indiana.edu or the Center’s Director, Jesse Molesworth (jmoleswo@indiana.edu).

Papers will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee. We cover most expenses for visiting scholars chosen to present their work: accommodations, travel (up to a certain limit), and most meals. Expanded abstracts and/or entire papers may be published in the Center’s The Workshop, along with discussion transcripts or summaries.