Symposium sections

SECTION 1. Primitive Art at the Present: Change and Continuity

The main aim of this section is to study the state of Primitive Art at the present time, in which major questions arise. How is it produced? And in what forms, which spaces, which materials, with which artistic and extra-artistic goals, which results, and which links to the past? Furthermore, how is it received? How does it enter the commercial circuits of Western art, by which museums is it being acquired, how is it commercialized, under which names is it known, what categories does it acquire, what gives it value, etc. These questions cannot be answered without considering the colonial past and consequently the cultural dialogue that this encounter entailed, since contemporary art forms, and their means of consumption and reception, are derived from this confrontation.

We are interested in the relationship of change and continuity within non-Western cultural phenomena and its contact with Western culture. In particular, we stress the extent to which changes in various paradigms – cultural, religious, economic, etc. – have influenced the indigenous cultures that have endured a colonizing process or have come into contact with the Western world. We therefore highlight a process of transformation from a symbolic production, related to the Sacred, to a progressive desecration of material culture, as well as the shift from some aesthetic forms to others, which have taken place during this contact.

• Hybrid art, tourist art, contemporary primitive art: characteristics, styles and their problems.

• The role of art in contemporary indigenous communities: Indigenous communities with Art centres, new models of production and of living?

• Theoretical problems in the study of contemporary Indigenous Art

• Change and Continuity in Art and Cultural Practices

SECTION 2. The Reception of the Primitive

This section includes various contributions on the reception of the Primitive, especially at exhibitions that were organized within major public events, such as Universal Expositions, Colonial exhibitions, the first anthropological museums, fairs, etc., and which exhibited both objects (art pieces and artifacts from indigenous material culture from the colonies), and people (human exhibitions of indigenous peoples from colonized countries). All these events were channels for the reception of Primitive objects, and led to the establishment of what became the first collections of Primitive Art. This focus does not need to be directed exclusively on exhibitions, but also on various media and fields, such as dance, music, etc., embodying the notion of the Primitive.

• Early Anthropological/ ethnographic collections of Primitive Art.

• From the exhibition of the “Other” in Universal Exhibitions to the exhibition of the Primitive (in all of its possible manifestations: objects, performances, dance, music, etc.)

• Exhibition and Art collections vs. Artifacts (material culture). New museums and Exhibition spaces.

SECTION 3. Primitivism in Modern and Contemporary Art

3.1. Primitivism in Modern Art: from 1900 to 1945

3.2. Primitivism in Contemporary Art: from 1945 to the present

The use and reinvention of Primitive Art (African art, Oceanic art and Indigenous American art) by modern Western artists, as well as the re-elaboration and recreation of the ethnocentric idea of the Primitive has been an extremely recurrent aesthetic and artistic resource in modern art. Since the end of the 19^th Century, the reference to the Primitive has been one of the core elements in the stylistic definition of modern art, as well as a criticism of the European tradition, classical-naturalistic theories and the idea of progress led by Western societies. Given the importance of these practices in modern art, in this section we aim to identify and examine various re-elaborations of the Primitive by modern and contemporary artists since the end of the 19^th Century, and during the 20^th Century avant-garde movements in particular. Some (but not all) of the questions that we aim to consider are:

• Identifying various aspects of European art and visual culture that are related to non-Western aesthetics, taking into consideration theoretical questions and problems of interpretation.

• Questioning the historical research and methodology, as well as the category of Art, in order to enable different proposals and methods of representation in the current historical-artistic debate on Primitivism and Modern Art.

•  Establishing similarities and differences between different “Primitivistic” practices throughout Modern and Contemporary Art.

• Providing a definition of “Modern Artistic Primitivism” – apart from the formal affinities between Modern Western art and “Primitive” objects – which focuses on the concept of interpretation, by analyzing artistic, political, and cultural conditions.

Submission guidelines