Appel à communication : « Art as Cultural Diplomacy » (Cracovie, 24-26 avril 2015)

Art as Cultural Diplomacy (Krakow, 24-26 Apr 2015)

Krakow, April 24 - 26, 2015
Deadline: Mar 23, 2015

Call for Papers for the Panel:
Art as Cultural Diplomacy: (Re)Constructing Notions of Eastern and 
Western Europe

(As part of the Fourth Euroacademia International Conference 
‘Re-Inventing Eastern Europe’, to be held in Krakow, Poland in 24th - 
26th of April 2015, including a visit to Auschwitz – Birkenau on 26th 
of April 2015)

Deadline: 23rd of March 2015

Art as Cultural Diplomacy: (Re)Constructing Notions of Eastern and 
Western Europe
Panel Proposed by: Cassandra Sciortino, University of California, Santa 
Barbara

Panel Description

The panel “Art as cultural diplomacy” seeks papers that explore the 
function of art (in its broadest definition) as an instrument of 
cultural diplomacy by the state and, especially, by nongovernmental 
actors. The main theme of the session is the question of art and 
diplomacy in Europe before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 
Papers are welcome which explore issues related to the role of art, 
diplomacy and the politicization of the European Union and its 
candidate countries, as are those which consider how the arts have 
pursued or resisted East-West dichotomies and other narratives of 
alterity in Europe and worldwide.  The panel seeks to combine a wide 
range of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore how art—its various 
practices, history, and theory—are an important area of inquiry in the 
expanding field of cultural diplomacy.

Some examples of topics include:

•    How can art serve as a neutral platform for exchange to promote 
dialogue and understanding between foreign states? 
•    How can art, including organized festivals (i.e. film, art, 
music.), cultivate transnational identities that undermine dichotomies 
of East and West, and other narratives of alterity in Europe and beyond 
it? 
•    The implications for art as an instrument of diplomacy in a 
postmodern age where geopolitics and power are increasingly mobilized 
by image based structures of persuasion 
•    How has/can art facilitate cohesion between European Union member 
states and candidate states that effectively responds to the EU’s 
efforts to create “unity in diversity.” 
•    The politics of mapping Europe: mental and cartographic 
•    Community based art as a social practice to engage issues of 
European identity 
•    The difference between art as cultural diplomacy and propaganda 
•    The digital revolution and the emergence of social media as 
platforms for art to communicate across social, cultural, and national 
boundaries? 
•    Diplomacy in the history of art in Europe and Eastern Europe 
•    Artists as diplomats 
•    Art history as diplomacy—exhibitions, post-colonial criticism, 
global art history, and other revisions to the conventional boundaries 
of Europe and its history of art 
•    The international activity of cultural institutes

Please apply on-line or submit abstracts of less than 300 words 
together with the details of affiliation until 23rd of March 2015 to 
application@euroacademia.eu