THE ART OF DEALING WITH ADVERSITIES

XII SEMINAR OF THE D. JOÃO VI MUSEUM - GRUPO ENTRESSÉCULOS - VIII INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ART COLLECTIONS IN PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Adversities, in their multiple senses, are inherent to humanity, continually forced to reinvent themselves, reformulate and react to unforeseen situations, developing other practices and perceptions, other habits and relationships. In art, they also compromised their production, circulation and reception, in the same way that the collections faced threats, dispersions, disappearances and readaptations.

As said by Hélio Oiticica - We live from adversity. The crises acted directly or indirectly on the destinations of art, collections, history and criticism of art, both from a historical perspective and in the reflection of its directions in contemporary times. Starting from the idea of self-help manuals, which present the difficulties and ways of overcoming them, The Art of dealing with Adversities is a provocation to think about how crises impacted and modified art, collections and art history, and their institutions, and as they reflected these moments of exception and threat, they represented them, resisted them and proposed strategies to overcome them.
The intention is to cover the great catastrophes that have shaken humanity, such as natural disasters, earthquakes, endemics, epidemics and pandemics; wars and all kinds of violence; death, extermination and pain; revolutions, authoritarian systems and dictatorships; the internal crises of art itself and of art history; the destruction and dispersion of collections; representations of times of crisis or works inspired by them; and, finally, all those periods of significant revision of values and customs, of changing paradigms, of moments that suppose a point of inflection and great instability, but also of creativity and profound renewal.
THEMATIC AXES
1. Convulsions in historiography and art theory
Controversies and historiographic debates, clashes and changes in theoretical paradigms have always challenged art historians in their work. Art History, like all other disciplines, is immersed in life and subjected to the adversities faced by its agents and objects of study. In this axis, proposals that focus on crises in art history will be accepted. How did the adversities provide new approaches or revisions of course in the practice of art history? And how do these theoretical or practical changes come to be seen in art collections?
2. Institutional setbacks and crises
The art world and its institutions - museums, schools, artistic foundations, universities, private or public collections - have gone through and faced setbacks and crises, directly affecting their directions, their organizations and structures. What irreversible losses have occurred in collections or educational institutions? How did these episodes produce unusual and creative proposals in museums, schools or collections? What solutions have been devised to deal with adversity?
3. Adverse situations, productions and representations
Art has always dealt with calamities. Floods, shipwrecks, fires, earthquakes and other disasters have been the subject of artistic representation over the centuries, as well as political repressions found an echo in artistic works and focused on the conformity of collections. Emotional impasses also found an outlet in art. In this axis, proposals will be accepted that focus on art productions motivated by adverse and critical situations. How do such representations manifest themselves in the works of artists or in art collections?
TIMELINE
Submission of proposals: until July 1, 2021.
Publication of the results: August 1, 2021
Sending text with requested adjustments: until August 20, 2021
Video submission: until August 20, 2021
Disclosure of the program: September 20, 2021
Enrollment of certified listeners: from September 20 to October 18, 2021
Event: October 19-22, 2021

SYSTEMATIC [see https://www.even3.com.br/12smdjvi8colecoes2021/]