TARKOVSKY REVISITED
dialogue between the moving image and the other arts

Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University of Porto (ILCML/CITCEM)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Steven Jacobs
(Ghent University, Department of Art History)
Tobias Pontara
(University of Gothenburg, Department of Cultural Sciences)

In Sculpting in Time, Andrei Tarkovsky cryptically states that cinema is the "most poetic of art forms". Poetry plays, in fact, a prominent role in his films, as testified by the several studies that were published about the poetic qualities of his work. However, in the essays he wrote about his craft and creative praxis, Tarkovsky often enlists the aid of other artistic media to clarify how certain images were composed or combined.
To be sure, the oneiric flow of his films evokes the suggestive structure of music more than the linearity of standard-fare narrative movies. Even though some scholarly work has recently been done on the director’s approach to sound design, much remains to be said about Tarkovsky’s interartistic liaisons. In what ways, for instance, does sound, in his films, both diegetic and non-diegetic, reinforce, undermine and/or complicate the themes articulated through the narrative? What do we make of the central role played by images and visual references such as icons, paintings, and photographs? And what to say about the poetics of space articulated both within and beyond the mise-en-scène?
We thus would like to invite Film Studies scholars, but also researchers in such fields as Literary Studies, Art History and Musicology, to explore the ways in which Tarkovsky's cinema converses with the arts at large. The key topics we wish to consider are: how does the medium of cinema, as conceptualized by Tarkovsky, transform the meaning of poetry, music, and the visual arts? And to what extent does Tarkovsky’s extra-cinematic understanding of space and time reconfigure the art of filmmaking, especially as it is practiced today?

We propose the following themes and topics for discussion:
- Tarkovksy and the representation of the Sacred: icons and acheiropoeita, symbols and the ineffable;
- The Tarkovskian mise-en-scène and the visual arts: a dialogue between moving image, painting, photography and architecture;
- Soundscapes, atmospheres and the spirit of place: measuring time, space and visual sound as a metaphor, a synesthetic rendering and an emotional projection;
- The symbolic interplay of memory and meaning;
- The filmmaker as writer: the relationship between film and literature (poetry and prose);
- Tarkovsky’s influence and echoes on contemporary filmmaking practices;
- Tarkovsky and Remodernist film: a return to transcendental filmmaking;
- Through the looking-glass: how contemporary art, literature and music inflect the way we perceive Tarkovsky today.

The authors are encouraged to submit their proposals by 15 October 2021.

The document (MS Word, RTF or Notepad) must provide the following information:
- author(s)
- affiliation
- email address
- title of proposal
- body of proposal (max. 500 words)
- keywords (up to 5)

We accept proposals written in English or Portuguese.

All submissions should be addressed to tarkovskyrevisitedgmail.com.
Selected chapters will be included in a peer-reviewed essay collection dedicated to the theme of the event.

The conference will take place both locally and online. We are looking forward to accommodating all the attendees whether they are able to participate in-person or online via Zoom.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Andréa M. Diogo (Queen’s University Belfast, CITCEM)
João Paulo Guimarães (U.Porto/ILCML)
Joana Isabel Duarte (Universitat de Lleida, U.Porto/CITCEM)