Appel à communication: Revival: Utopia, Identity, Memory. (The Courtauld Art Institute, 20 juin 2012 et 23/24 novembre 2012)

Revival: Utopia, Identity, Memory.

The Courtauld Art Institute – Deadline : 16 avril 2012

Revivalism in art and architecture is a fundamental though often overlooked aspect of modernity. From the nineteenth century to the present, styles, ideologies, techniques and approaches have been revived and re-framed. Revival: Utopia, Identity, Memory seeks to investigate the diverse dimensions of revivalism, exploring its meanings and impacts across cultures, periods and media. The extent to which revivalism has been harnessed to promote utopian visions, assert aspects of personal or corporate identity, and grant fresh purchase on memorialization and nostalgia are all productive trajectories for investigation. Studies of art and architectural revivals tend to focus on biographical or stylistic approaches. This project, consisting of a workshop and major conference for an international cohort of interdisciplinary scholars, encourages intersecting and broadening views in order to chart the notion of revivalism itself. The phenomenon’s implications for art and architectural history in relation to tradition, repetition, originality, transnationality, patronage, religion, colonialism, historicism, reproduction, authenticity, resistance and power have yet to be intensively investigated.

This project consists of two events at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London. The first, on Wednesday 20 June 2012, will be a day-long workshop. The second, on 23-24 November 2012, will be a two-day conference. The purpose of the workshop is to explore intersections and encourage dialogue between scholars, and to discuss the importance of revivalism in broad terms. Workshop participants will also be invited to contribute research and topics for discussion to the November conference. The conference’s purpose is to crystalize and refine initial workshop conversations, establishing new ways of understanding revivalism. Participants will be drawn from early career and more established scholars, as well as artists and architects who actively engage with revival within their practice. Papers specifically addressing revivalism in relation to utopia, identity or memory are especially encouraged. It is hoped that speakers will attend both the summer workshop and the autumn conference in order to establish cohesion within the project and to create sophisticated collaborative responses to the theme.

Contact: 

Please email a CV and 200-word statement of how your work engages with revivalism to the project convener, Ayla Lepine
(ayla.lepine@courtauld.ac.uk).