Appel à communication : « Successful immigrants: Artist immigrants to the Baltic Sea area in times of the Nordic Wars (1554-1721) » (Leipzig, 8-9 février 2018)

Appel à communication : « Successful immigrants: Artist immigrants to the Baltic Sea area in times of the Nordic Wars (1554-1721) »

8-9 février 2018, Leibniz Institut für die Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europas (GWZO), Reichsstr. 4-6, D–04109 Leipzig.

Organisation : Agnieszka Gąsior (agnieszka.gasior@leibniz-gwzo.de), Leibniz-Instituts für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO).

Movement and mobility had always been important engines for innovation and development in arts. Together with artists, also new ideas, concepts, styles and techniques traverse boundaries and mix up with traditional and constricted habits at their place of arrival.
Long hikes to foreign countries implied a high risk in Early Modern Times since knowledge about far regions was limited and traveling arduous. Nevertheless, a surprisingly high activity of migration can be observed in artistic professions. The planned workshop seeks to explore the latter phenomenon in the Baltic Sea area.
The Baltic Sea in Early Modern Times wasn’t only a barrier as which it was observed in the further course of history, but also a contact zone. Its neighbouring countries were intertwined in various forms of relations – trade, diplomacy, but also wars gave rise to more exchange and thus encouraged migration movements.
The workshop aims to shape a more differentiated picture about the dynamics of artistic transfer processes and labour conditions in the Baltic region. In this regard, the workshop will focus not only on major cities like Gdansk, which had a special appeal on artists; or Dutch artists and craftsmen, which represented the largest group of immigrants to the Baltic region. Rather, the workshop will target different groups and individuals as well as the entire Baltic Sea area: the Kingdoms of Poland, Denmark and Sweden (including its Baltic provinces), the Duchy of Courland or cities like Stockholm, Riga or Reval.
In this connection the following questions can serve as opening questions: What reasons motivated the artists to migrate and what goals did they pursue? What made a place attractive for the arrivals? Did the artists stay in their new domains, did they return home or did they continue traveling? How did the artistic development proceeded and how did they integrate in their new home places?
Any project that concerns individual artist careers, rewarded with success or failed, will be of interest for the workshop. The workshop also welcomes papers offering an overview, focusing on protagonists, cities or routes. Furthermore, proposals concerning traveling writers may be included as possible comparison group.

Please send your one-page proposal and short CV to Agnieszka Gąsior at agnieszka.gasior@leibniz-gwzo.de by October 31th 2017.