Cult/Space/Presence of Images. Three workshops on the art and cultural historical impulses of Hans Belting.

Organizers: Ivan Foletti, Klaus Krüger, Tanja Michalsky

October 2–3, 2023, Center for Early Medieval Studies, Department of Art History, Brno

March 21–22, 2024, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut for Art History, Rome

July 5–6, 2024, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin

The aim of the three events organized in Brno, Rome and Berlin is to systematically illuminate and classify the contribution of Hans Belting (1935–2023) to art history, visual and cultural studies and to reflect on its significance. To this end, three different, though not strictly separable, focal areas and thematic fields which played a central role in Belting’s research will be explored: on the one hand, the question of the function and meaning of “cult images” in the interplay of religion, aesthetics, and ritual performance (Brno); on the other hand, the question of the real and imaginary, social and religious space in which images act or are understood as acting (Rome); and finally, the question of the presence mediated by images or media-aesthetically constructed presence (Berlin). Naturally, these three thematic axes overlap in various ways and are frequently interconnected, as Belting himself has repeatedly pointed out, for example in his Bild-Anthropologie (2001), and thematized in the triad “image, medium, body”.

The invitation is addressed to art historians and scholars of related disciplines. Proposals on the historiography of art history are also welcome. Also younger scholars (predocs and postdocs) researching the above-mentioned fields are explicitly invited to participate.

Interested scholars are asked to submit a short proposal (maximum one page) and a short CV (maximum 2 pages) by May 31, 2023, indicating their preference for one of the three thematic fields. Please send your proposal to all three of the following addresses:

margarita.hahanovamail.muni.cz
rossibiblhertz.it
sunita.scheffelfu-berlin.de