IMAGES OF VIOLENCE / VIOLENCE OF IMAGES

Practices of looking. Images, Icons, Ideologies – seminar and discussions
 
To explore the meaning of images is to recognize that they are produced within dynamics of social power and ideologies. We propose to investigate the relation of cultural ideology and institutions to the production and perception of visual messages, the way media images, texts and programs move from one social arena to another, and circulate in and across cultures. This approach concerns the institutional frameworks that regulate and sometimes limit the circulation of images, as well as the ways in which images change meaning in different cultural contexts.Focus for seminars and discussions inside working group:
• Images as commodities
• How is the meaning of images negotiated in the social process
• Icons as shared values

CONFERENCE

Visual Culture and Trans-Cultural Dynamics in theSouth Eastern Europe
 
Identity and visual culture – conference, lectures and presentations
 
The recent focus on identity was often used as a means of resolving cultural and political dilemmas. But identity is as much a problem as it is a solution when it comes to contexts and regions with closed and divided societies, with poor practice of dialogue and communication.The flow of information at global level and the changes from the recent past of SEE countries put on the agenda questions of mutual knowledge and trans-cultural dynamics in the region. As visual culture is part of these trans-cultural dynamics, we cannot but take into consideration the role of seeing and visualising in constructing the notion of cultural identity/alterity.
 
Discussion focus during the conference, lectures, and presentations:

• visual culture as interdisciplinary domain; visual culture – tactic or academic discipline
• visual culture, visual studies and cooperation at regional level; policy and strategy
• the role of visual in the circulation of ideas and concepts across cultures
• images and meanings: what images tell us about the cultures in which they are produced
• presentations of projects and initiatives at regional level

PARTICIPANTS

Ami Barak (F) – curator, president of International Association of Curators, director of the contemporary art exhibition program, City Council of Paris
Werner Meyer (D) – director, Kunsthalle Göppingen.
René Block (D) – curator, director of Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
Viktor Misiano (Rus) – art critic, curator, founder and chief-editor of Moscow Art Magazine
Anne Peschken and Marek Pisarsky (Urban Art) (D) – visual artists
Janka Vukmir (Hr) – curator, director of Contemporary Art Institute, Zagreb
Irina Cios (Ro) – curator, director of International Center for Contemporary Art, Bucharest
Adrian Guţă (Ro) – art critic, professor, University of Arts, Bucharest
Vasile Ernu (Ro) – art theoretician, director, Idea Press House,Cluj
Stevan Vuković (S&M) – curator, program director SKC, Belgrade
Vladimir Bulat (Md) – curator, art critic and director of Art-Hoc Magazine
Arjon Dunnewind (Nl) – curator, director of Impakt – Video and Media Art Festival, Utrecht
Marta Smolińska-Byczuk (Pl) – Departement of Art and Culture History, University Nicolaus Copernicus, Torun, editor-in-chief ARTeon Magazine
Alex Săndulescu (Ro) – director B-24-FUN, advertising magazine
Elena Panayotova (Bg) – artist and organizer of cultural events
Irina Grabovan (Md) – curator, Aorta Gallery, Chisinau
Alina Şerban (Ro) – curator, art critic, editor Arhitext Magazine
Ivan Mečl (Cz)- director, Umelec International Magazine
Jiri Ptacek (Cz) – art theoretician, curator and editor-in-chief of Umelec International Magazine
Florin Iaru (Ro) – poet, writer, computer graphic – designer
Bogdan Ghiu (Ro) – writer, media analyst and producer
Brânduşa Palade (Ro) – philosopher, professor assistant SNSPA
Matei Bejenaru (Ro) – artist, cultural manager, professor, University of Arts, Iaşi
Liviana Dan (Ro) – curator, Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu
Alexandra Crăciun (Ro) – associate senior lecturer Phd., University of Bucharest
Ron Sluik (Nl) – visual artist, curator, Aorta Gallery, Chisinau
Steven Gartside (UK) – PhD, Centre for the Study of Location, Memory and Visuality MIRIAD
Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bg), visual artist and curator, ICA Sophia
Dan Dediu (Ro), composer, Composition Departement, National University of Music, Bucharest
Ana Marija Koljanin (Hr) – curator, Kazamat Gallery, Osjiek