Shared Practices: The Intertwinement of the Arts in the Culture of Socialist Eastern Europe

The Kumu Art Museum’s fall conference 2015
In cooperation with the Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts

Conference programme:

Thursday, 22 October

17.30 Registration

18.00–20.00
Opening words
Anu Liivak, Director of the Kumu Art Museum
Sirje Helme, Director-General of the Art Museum of Estonia

Introduction
Anu Allas, Kumu Art Museum

KEYNOTE LECTURE
Romy Golan (City University of New York)
Synthesis Undone
Chair Epp Lankots

Friday, 23 October

10.00–12.00 Ideologies for the Synthesis of the Arts
Chair Linda Kaljundi

Nikolas Drosos (Columbia University, New York)
Applied and Useful Art: The Discourse on the Synthesis of the Arts in the USSR and Poland during the 1950s

Virve Sarapik (Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts)
Visualising World War III

Stella Pelše (Latvian Academy of Art)
The Best of the Past on a New Level: Synthesis of the Arts in the Latvian Art Criticism of the 1970s

12.00–12.30 Coffee break

12.30–14.00 Experimentation as Critique
Chair Lolita Jablonskiene

Maja Fowkes and Reuben Fowkes (Translocal Institute Budapest)
Putting the Social back into the Socialist City: The Critical Urban Practice of the Group TOK

Māra Traumane (Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Zurich)
“Doubts on Art” as a Constructive Project: the Case of the “Unfelt Feelings Restoration Workshop”

14.00–15.00 Lunch

15.00–17.00 Dynamics of Collaborative Work
Chair Klara Kemp-Welch

Eleonora Farina (Free University of Berlin)
Ex Oriente Lux: Ion Grigorescu and the Sigma Group in Socialist Romania

Tomasz Załuski (University of Łódz)
From Praxeology to the Artists of Other Arts Association: The Integration of Arts and Transmediality in KwieKulik’s “Activities”

Matteo Bertelé (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
From Narcissus to Collective Performances: The Work of Valera and Natasha Cherkashin

17.00–17.30 Coffee break

17.30–18.30 EVENING LECTURE
László Beke (Budapest)
Chair Liisa Kaljula
How to Construct a New Theory of East European Art?

Saturday, 24 October

10.00–12.00 Monumental, Ritual and Communal Spaces
Chair Ingrid Ruudi

Marija Martinovic and Mladen Pesic (Belgrad University)
Synthesis of Arts and Architecture: Community Centres in Socialist Belgrade

Raino Isto (University of Maryland)
Dynamisms of Time and Space: The Synthesis of Architecture and Monumental Sculpture in Socialist Albania’s Martyrs’ Cemeteries

Marija Dremaite (Vilnius University)
Architecture of the Soviet Ritual – Wedding and Funeral Palaces in Soviet Lithuania

12.00–12.30 Coffee break

12.30–14.00 Debating All-Encompassing Art
Chair Anu Allas

Fabiola Bierhoff (Free University of Berlin)
Multimedia Art in the German Democratic Republic: the Art Festival Intermedia (1985)

Elnara Taidre (Art Museum of Estonia; Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts)
Synthesis of Visual Art Forms as the Total Work of Art: The Case of Tõnis Vint’s Art Practices in Soviet Estonia

14.00–15.00 Lunch

15.00–17.00 Translations and Adaptations
Chair Romy Golan

Klara Kemp-Welch (Courtauld Institute of Art, London)
Poetry Beyond Borders

Ksenya Gurshtein (National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, Washington, DC)
Conceptual Artists, Cognitive Film: Artists as Film-makers at the Balázs Béla Studio

Amy Bryzgel (University of Aberdeen)
The Adoption and Adaptation of Institutional Critique in Eastern Europe

17.00–17.30 Coffee break

17.30–19.00 FINAL DISCUSSION
Romy Golan, Klara Kemp-Welch, Anu Allas, Epp Lankots

Additional information:
Anu Allas
anu.allasekm.ee
Tel. +3726026056
Mob. +37253403356

Kumu kunstimuuseum / Kumu Art Museum
Weizenbergi 34 / Valge 1
10127 Tallinn

The conference is supported by Eesti Kultuurkapital.